The Five Strongest!
by Dancesnapple
Summary: From the world we saw, there were two from the leaves. They were the deciders of fate. But now, there are five. Follow the fifth as he shows himself to this world of Ninja. Main Five characters Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, Shinzo Kisaragi(CYOA OC), Katto Kisaragi(CYOA OC), and our new fifth hero!
1. Enter the Hero!

I should stand up straighter. My postures terrible. Do I ever look good enough for today. God, why am I so paranoid? Why does everything have to be so hard. . .

Oh, yeah. I'm a ninja, and today is the start of the Jonin exams.

Hayato Lamperouge is my name, sort of. Jeeze I hate walking through these halls. The stone ninja won't stop glaring at my white eyes. SEE THIS. It's a pupil. Quit acting like I'm a Hyuuga from Konoha of all places. Look at the headband. Mist ninja you freaking racists. Okay, not racist. I wouldn't even have the right to use the word unless I came from the Cloud village.

I came here so that I could become a Jonin for my village. In fact, my siblings did too. You could tell we were related. Me? I'm 16. I had unkept black hair that naturally kept pretty straight. Came over my eyes a little bit.**(Think Light Yagami from Death Note but neater and jet black.)** Again, I have white eyes, but they have pupils. Stop looking at me like a Hyuuga. I wear a black t-shirt with sleeves almost covering my elbows. Over top, a silver chunin flak vest, although the pockets have been replaced with scroll slots. Tiny ones so it doesn't add to my bulk. Better make a double take and, yep, wearing pants. God would have been embarassing to forget that. Jet black pants that almost went past the ankles. Top it off with the black sandals. **(What is with everyone's obsession with combat boots on Fanfiction? They don't wear boots ever so why everyone puts Naruto in combat boots if they change his outfit at all, I'll never guess but just IRKS me) **

To my right, my older brother walked with his hands to his sides. Kenjuro Hozuki, . He was has silver-ish arm warmers with an all black semi tight attire. He has inherited this outfit from his own father, who was a black op in our village. **(think what Zabuza died in, but with sleeves.) **He had white hair almost to his shoulders, with violet eyes. He was really only a half brother. His father was part of the Hozuki clan. Now, he can be a sarcastic asshole, sometimes, but even though he's lazy, he always does something the right way. He'll just take his damn sweet time doing it. He also holds to our village's traditions the most, fighting with an extra long sword that looked a little to thick. As you can imagine, He used water style.

To the left, we have the loudmouth bundle of fun that is my hotheaded sister. Hiyori Lamperouge. Now, I know, for a fact, that she is innocent. One thing about our family is keeping tabs on one another. One thing I don't like is how she dresses. Jet black hair going past the shoulders slightly with dark red highlights. He had dark black eyes, like our father. The rest of her figure was from our mother. I, on the other hand, had my mother's eyes, for the most part, and the rest was my father's side. She wore a black top that was sleeveless and showed off her mid riff and black short shorts with a dress like design. **(Okay, As a man I have no way to describe this. Tifa from Final Fantasy Advent Children outfit. Exact copy, just on this girl.)** She had some gloves with finger holes on them while she too had black sandals. He had a black scroll hanging horizontal on her back as she walked. Her personality was often. . . . flirtatious to say the least, but she was honest. She wouldn't give up the goods or anything. She just liked toying with people. Toying with people is probably why she decided to reverse engineer the Puppet Master technique from the Sand. She would keep in sealed along with other surprises in her huge ass scroll. That's not all she has, but it shows for her personality as a manipulator, seeing as how she's the village prankster. Never serious.

We walked through the halls together towards our exam room. Our, erm, sensei didn't even bother the come. The asshole. He's usually late for everything anyway, but he's always late for real reasons unlike an infamous ninja from the Leaf. OH! Speak of the devil.

We walk into exam room 7, finding ourselves facing a cycloptic man with silver hair reading from a book now outlawed from many shops in our village, Make Out Paradise. He takes a good couple minutes before finally putting the book down and feigning surprise at our presence. "Oh, didn't hear you come it. I was just lost in the meaning of life. My bad."

"You were lost in your lame ass book." **(Think a Lelouch from Code Geauss voice)** Okay, I'm known for being blunt sometimes.

"So, you're saying you see through the book's interntions?" The Copy ninja retorts.

"No, but I do see through bullshit." Another blunt statement.

"well, then. Let us begin. You are all here to begin the exams to become Jonin. Previously, you have made your way into Chunin by subjecting yourselves to trail by combat, proof of information gathering, and leadership capability. Now, we must take a look at the qualities of Jonin." He looked around and waved over the over candidates from the room with us.

"Now, Being a Jonin requires making snap decisions. A ninja must be able to see through decepti-"

"Don't you think we get that? Or why would we even be here?" A black haired girl from the Stone proclaimed.

"I'm telling you this because you DON'T get it. You think you get it, but that's not the same as actually getting it. Get it?" This seemed to put the hot head in her place. He looked to the rest of us before a pink haired girl interrupted.

"You already used that one before, Kakashi-sensei. Just get to the point before I tell Lady Tsunade how late you were for the last mission." He seemed to sweat drop at that.

"You are all placed in different rooms throughout this complex. The reason being is that each room is set for a different mission. This is the first exam."

"What do you mean 'mission'?" My sister decided to speak up.**(Think of a Kushina voice.)**

"There are eight different rooms in this complex. Each room contained eight candidates for Jonin-"

"So every room is given a different objective to accomplish during the first test, the difficulty of which depends entirely on the actions on the other teams, which we cannot control." My brother spoke up in his deepened voice. **(Think Pain voice)**

"Correct. That's something needed for this. You each have the skill bases required. You merely need to take it to a higher degree to be able to be considered Jonin. Everyone in this room will be part of a single division. In war time, large divisions are put together and have to cope with the large size. Let's start by introducing ourselves. I may not be part of the unit but I'll start things off."

The girl with pink hair face palmed as if anticipating what came from the mouth behind the man's mask. "My name is Kakashi Hatake. My likes?. . . well I like many things. My dislikes? . . . Well, I can't say I particular hate anything. Dreams for the future? I don't really feel like telling you that." We all sweat dropped at that point. "My hobbies? Well, I have lots of Hobbies. Okay. Next?"

Before we could speak about the bullshit there, the pink haired girl went ahead. "I'll go ahead since I'm not shocked from his introduction. Sakura Haruno. My likes are becoming stronger, being with my friends and sensei, and warm sunny days. My dislikes are idiots and perverts." She shot an angry look at Kakashi's book. "My dreams for the future are to prove myself to two people. My hobbies include walks, training, taking care of people, and just talking." She looked to the black haired girl from the Stone.

"My name is Kurotsuchi, granddaughter of the Tsuchikage. My likes are events that are live. I hate anything that's boring. Dreams? To be Tsuchikage. Hobbies? Nothing really." She looked to the next person, a girl from the Sand, Temari. After that, a man with a pineapple haircut, Shikamaru Nara from the Leaf. Finally, we had a timid shy Hyuuga girl, Hinata Hyuuga. We made our introductions too before Shikamaru spoke up.

"Let me guess. I'm the strategist, we have a tracker(Hinata), we have our ranged fighters(Kurotsuchi, Temari, and Hiyori), we have a medic, and we have close ranger fighters judging from what I can tell from you two" He pointed to me and my brother as he finished. He turned to Kakashi. "So I assume we are matched up for the teams to be matched and have overall everything we need."

"That's correct." Kakashi states. He looks at everyone."Your mission is simple. Capture the leader of an enemy team." With that, he disappeared. The team looked around at each other.

"Three Mist ninja, one Sand, one Stone, and three Leaf. Not very balanced." I spoke my thoughts out loud.

"Five are girls. It's always like that with me. What a drag." Shikamaru half assed his speech as all the females glare, save for the Hyuuga. Hm, she seemed different than most Hyuuga to me. He continued before the sand girl could whack him with her fan. "Along with the other complications."

"What? It seems fairly straight forward to me." Sakura spoke out.

"Our mission is to capture an enemy leader. While that does at first seem straight forward, think for a moment about it."

Temari spoke for this time. "Out team has no leader yet. . . ."

"Meaning the other teams don't have a leader." Kenjuro spoke up, gaining attention. "Every team will go through a feeling out process as a leader is determined for each team. We will need to locate a team and hold back until we can determine which one has taken charge of the group. That could take time."

"And we'd have to remain hidden. DAMN IT! I hate waiting." Hiyori spoke out. "Son of a bitch."

"They'll also be on the move, because we don't know their objectives." Hinata spoke out for the first time. Damn this girl is quiet. "So we will need to be wary of what they are accomplishing."

This was starting to annoy you already. "We also were not given a time limit. There's a definite possibility that we may lose our chances the longer it takes as other teams complete their objectives and leave the exam grounds." I decided to throw the rest out there. "Not to mention that we need to be aware of other teams than the one we focus on."

"Oh. . . wow." Sakura slumped a bit at the complexity of this one simple task. I decided to perk up the attitude a bit.

"HAH! Bitch please. We have a Nara as our brains along with the relatives of TWO kage. We also have three Kekkei Genkai users. We're loaded to win!" I gestured to myself, my brother, and Hinata for the blood line bit. They all seemed surprised a moment.

"Speaking of, techniques, fighting styles, and uses. Go." Spoke Kurotsuchi.


	2. Jonin Exams: Part 1!

Okay, so I'd be wrong to say I wasn't a LITTLE bit on edge. Our team, while not exactly arguing with each other was sure to work alright. So now we're stuck in front of the gate to the test area, Death Valley. Before I even finished reading the sign, all the leaf ninja groaned, mumbling things about awful names. We all gathered for a pre-mission meeting.

"Shikamaru, how are we going to do this?" Sakura. The leaf ninja were rightfully reliant on the Nara boy. Needless to say we didn't want the leaf to just roll themselves into the leader spot. Oddly enough, the Nara agreed.

"Look. I don't want to lead, so if anyone else wants to take over at any time, feel free to. I'll at least start us off. We'll move in a diamond position. Front position is Hinata. She'll search out for the enemy. The back of the formation will be Hayato." I nodded. I had informed him about my ability to detect enemies but not how. He was rightfully cautious with the lack of detail so he was putting me on back, so he'd know I could cover it, but didn't have to know how. "Right corner of the formation will be Temari. Left will be Hiyori. That way, if we get attacked front or behind, our ranged fighters are safe." The girls nodded in agreement. "Front two behind Hinata will be Kenjuro and myself. My jutsu require shot range and Kenjuro is close combat. The two in front of Hayato are Kurotsuchi, a support fighter, and Sakura, our medic so she is far from the fight." The last of us nodded. I felt the need to add something in.

"The enemy will surely try to track us or listen on us by some means. Even with my own and Hinata's tracking methods, we should have a precaution. We should switch off giving each other orders to confuse anyone as to who to target." Shikamaru chuckled at me.

"Look at the first volunteer. Take it from me. I wanna relax a bit." Kenjuro smirked while Hiyori pouted that I had the idea first.

"Okay."

The gate opened. "GO!"

. . .

It had taken a half hour. The valley was nothing but rocks and plateaus. Lots of places to hide. A lot of repetitiveness. "Stop here!" I call out. There was a cave that led underground. Hmmmm. . . . . fun thoughts. "Shikamaru, do you have any explosives?"

The Nara tossed several explosive tags with a smirk. "I think I know where you're going. Kurotsuchi, can you hide us?"

She smiles a toothy grin as she just goes through the hand signs. I paid a good look to each. "Earth Style: Burial Jutsu!" In one instant, the group is thrown into the ground, ending up in an underground cave of Kurotsuchi's creation. "One hideout for us." She points up, causing us to look at the ceiling/ground about fifty feet above us with cracks in the rocks every so often. "Have to make sure we have air. Only thing we need is water. I assume we brought food." She finished with hands on hips almost scolding anyone who didn't bring food. She seemed to perk up when everyone nodded.

Kenjuro went to the edge of the room feeling around before gesturing me over. "Nearest water source?"

Right, Hozuki. We could have set this up later but he needs it now. One good look. "Underground water way about thirty meters. . . there." I pointed to the spot. He smirked as we both rapidly went through the seals. "Water Style." The jutsu didn't have a name, more or less just manipulating the water to a certain flow. Water began to flow through a new hole in the wall before draining into another hole we made to go back to the source. A flow. He went to drink it like it was from a water fountain.

"Who wants to set it up?" Temari announced. So she finally worked out the plan. The others were starting to get into it.

"We need the bait in the cave. I got that covered." Kenjuro spoke up. With one swift motion. "Water Style: Water Clone Jutsu!" Eight water clones appeared around him. "You know the drill."

"Whatever. . ." All the clones said as seven of the eight turned into exact copies of the other seven team members. They each looked to the ceiling then to Kurotsuchi. She was still taking a moment.

"What?"

"Bait in the cave to draw the enemy in. explosives in the cave. We bury whoever enters, hopefully most of the enemy squad, before jumping out to ambush." Shikamaru explained. "But we need to be able to fool them better."

"I got that covered!" Hiyori stated. "Me and Kenjuro don't require that much chakra to fight! He can use his clones at first and have them do two man patrols. Everytime two of his clones come out and dispel, I'll send two of my own in to replace them so it seems like it really is us in there!"

"Good. I'll set up the trap myself while the clones set up shop in the cave." Temari stated as Kurotsuchi took them all to the surface leaving myself, my siblings, and the leaf ninja.

"So. . . . how's the weather?" Everyone looked at me dead panned. Okay, could have done better with the conversation starter.

. . .

Jeeze it was taking forever. A few times Hinata and myself sensed a few come near us, but never towards the cave. A couple of the water clone patrols tried luring a team near, but the team didn't dare come. Something about a Hyuuga on that team revealing the clones for what they were and saying it wasn't their objective. Hinata spoke the name 'Neji' under her breath when that happened.

So, needless to say. We were bored as fuck. I decided to head on over to Hinata and see what was up. "Yo!"

She seemed to jump from that. "H-hello Hayato. . . How can I h-help you?"

"I don't need help. Just sayin' hi. We can be out here for days, so staying in clicks won't do us much help. What's with the stutter?" Again with the bluntness.

"I-its nothing. Just. . . I-I don't know." I tilted my head at that.

"Sounds like a personal problem. I do well with those." I proclaimed with a smile. "Who are you doing this for? Boyfriend?" Did she just turn part tomato? Seriously, red is an understatement. "I guess that answers it. Good guy or asshole?"

I had to cringe from the glare she gave there. "Don't you ever insult Naruto. . ."

Throw the hands in surrender damn it! "Okay! Bad way to word it! I'm guessing good guy." The killing intent stopped like a light switch was flipped and she went back to twiddling her fingers.

"Well. . . we aren't exactly. . . I mean I want to but he doesn't really notice me. . ."

"Does he do good things for yo-"

"He does good things for everyone!" Well that was snappy of her. "He never gives up and focuses his whole life on getting stronger to change others around him. . . He never goes back on his word, so I gave my word to myself to become strong enough to stand with him."

"Ahhhhh." Understanding came to me. "Bad background. Causes problems. I can respect that. Naruto huh? I'll have to check in on that." I looked her over for a second. Defensive. Shy but determined. She's cool, but I need more info than that to judge her.

"You seem to be very. . . different from most Hyuuga from what I hear." Come on, take the bait.

"They see me as a failure because I rarely fight with all my power and I'm too soft. It's the reason why I've almost lost my place as clan heir." Royalty!? Damn! Granddaughter of a kage. Sister of another kage. MY team in particular. Now, this girl is a clan heir. Next you'll say we have a student of the sannin for god's sake.

"Dang! Is there anything BAD about you?" She blushed at the compliment. It only got worse when I laughed. Not a good thing for friendship. "Okay, the real reason I'm talking to you is because I both want to be friends with Konoha for my own reasons and I want to see the real Byakugon at work." She seemed to look at me weird when I said 'real'.

"I'm not a good example. . . n-not as I am now." I raised my eyebrow.

"And how do you know that before you try?" She seemed to look away. Time for the push. "You won't prove yourself for Naruto if you never take a first step, and I'm easy to impress. Just think that over for when the time comes." And with that, I walked towards Hiyori, who was having her own conversation with Sakura. I started a little tuh. Tuh tuh. Jingle as I walked. "Aaaaaaand how is my little sister, today?Is she bothering you?"

"Well fuck you too." Hiyori flipped me off with a grin. We greet each other like that.

"Ew, incest." Her eye twitched as I won that wordplay. I ended the victory with two words. "Phrasing bitch." I turned to Sakura. "How is she?"

Sakura chuckled at us. "Well, she's not much different than someone who used to be on my team. I can deal with her better though. He was an idiot through and through."

Curiosity sucks. "Who is that then? Is he at the exam?" She shook her head.

"No. He went on a training trip with one of the sannin two years ago. Ever since then, I've been training to get stronger to catch up with him, even being trained by Tsunade and yet I still feel inferior."**(THIS TAKES PLACE EXACTLY HALF A YEAR BEFORE SHIPPUDEN STARTS)** Well, I jinxed it. Sannin trainee. Fuck any team against us. All we need is the Nara kid to be a jinchuuriki. . . Okay that one might not happen but that would be AWESOME.

"What was his name?" I asked.

"Naruto." Okay, now you needed to know who the guy was. Two hott girls trying to get stronger for the guy.

"Okay. First the clan heiress over there and now you. Who is this kid?" You asked. Hiyori answered for her.

"Her and that Naruto guy are trying to get their old friend back from someone wicked guy. Now, get out of her business."Hiyori snapped.

"Whatever. I just wanted to. . ." Both Hinata and I look up. "We got company!"

Hmm. Let's see what we have. A view of the rocky land above came to as two of the water clones came through, looking like Temari and himself. They retreated to the cave just as planned. Time to see the group of pursuers. Seven people appeared before the cave. RIGHT! One person hangs back to save the others from a trap. Spare a look to Shikamaru. He just nods at me. He knows about that. Back to the group, time to see what we're up against. A man with brown hair riding a damn big dog. Konoha ninja. Time to check with Hinata. "Recognize that one?"

"Kiba. . . M-my teammate. Inuzuka clan."

Well that's not good. Next. Ah. Chojuro. He has one of the seven swords of the hidden mist. We know how strong he is. "Chojuro's there." This caused Kenjuro and Hiyori to harden their stares. "He has one of the swords of the hidden mist. He can make is into any weapon of any size he needs by focusing his chakra with it."

Next, three more leaf ninja? Damn. How many of them were in this exam? First one was a girl with brown hair and a great deal of weapon scrolls. Then, we have another girl with blonde hair and skimpy clothing. Hmph. Much like my sister. The last one seemed to have nothing special about him. Dull looks.(No name ninja.) There were two other boring ones. One from the Cloud village. One from the Sand.

"Tenten. Ino." Hinata spoke again. This got a chuckle out of Sakura at this "Ino's" name.

"Good thing we gave something with our scents to the clones so they could fool Kiba. Ino's gonna hate me for this." Shikamaru stated out loud.

Up above, the enemy squad looks over the cave as the Inuzuka kid and his dog sniff it out. They appear to give the go ahead to the others. Two of the no names prepare a number of smoke bombs and toss them in. "Won't work on the clones. They'll think somethings up." As if to show how the team had no brains, the no names charge in. Our whole group trembled a bit after we heard the explosions. The other four enemies and ninja hound jumped away from it as they ended up right above our heads. "Checkmate."

"Earth Style: Earth Prison Jutsu!" The earth below Ino came up and encased her in rock up to her neck. A loud 'What?!' was heard.

"CHA!" Sakura jumped up and punched out the rest of the ground/ceiling. Ino, in her little prison we stuck in place as Kiba, Akamaru, Chojuro, and Tenten leap into the air. They seemed surprised by half of us launching our attacks.

"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" Kenjuro.

"Earth Style: Mud Dragon Bomb!" Hiyori.

"Wind Scythe Jutsu!" Temari.

"Wind Style: Wind Blade Jutsu!" Me. My attack charges wind chakra around my fingers. I whip my hand while snapping my finger, releasing a blade like slash of wind at the same angle of how I whipped the hand. I can release a sizeable number too, although the standard damage one can do isn't very lethal unless it hits in the neck or eyes. Still, good to disabling opponents.

Chojuro makes his sword form a shield made of water while Tenten summons a shield for herself. They each protect Kiba and Akamaru as the attacks all hit dead on. Chojiro takes the hits well, but Tenten finds herself being launched off into a few boulders. Temari jumps after Tenten with Hinata backing her. "I got her. Her attacks are useless against me!" Temari blasts Tenten into another wall of rocks as Hinata jumps at here.

Tenten quickly summons a staff for close combat, spinning around and attacking the Hyuuga desperately keeping her away, but I knew that wouldn't take long. Sooner than I expected, she used the open air palm to blast out Tenten's footing before getting under the guard. "Two palms." Two hits. "Four palms." Four. "Eight palms. Sixteen palms. Thirty-two palms." The attack ends as Tenten slumps, slightly embedded into the rock. Damn. That looked painful. One down. Turning back to my other allies, Kenjuro was facing Chojiro in swordplay. Kenjuro casually knocked a strike to the side before ramming into Chojiro, knocking him into a rock wall. Chojuro ran through the seals.

"Water Style: Water Bullet!" The bullets hit Kenjuro, but do little damage as Kenjuro is MADE of water. Duh. Hozuki. Chojiro rushes in to face him again.

Game face. That leaves doggie to me. Hm? Where? Oh, behind. One swift jump avoids a nice Fang over Fang attack as I land in front of the duo as they stop. "Well, I guess that leaves me with Old Yeller and Lassey." The two seemed annoyed with the comment.

"Man Beast Mimicry! Fang Over Fang!" They shout together as they roar ahead.

"Bring it, Fido. Wind Style: Wind Aura Jutsu!" Ah. Love this feeling. Lighter, feels like there's always a breeze. Well, technically there is. The body becomes encased in an aura of wind, causing each movement to not only be supported by your power, but also powered by the wind around you, making you much fast and gain far more striking power. In a way, it's like the wind version of that famous Lightning Armor branded by the Raikage, although this one favors speed and strike force rather than defense. I look right up at the vortex in front of me as my hair flows a little bit.

Charge. I run directly in as I slide to my knees, limboing under the attack. The duo end the attack as they start to skid to a halt. I, however, already roll to my feet while skidding and jet right towards them. Eany meany miny YOU. I elbow one of the Kibas in the neck, pinning him into a rock before using a powered punch into the gut. I jump back as the Kiba falls over, poofing into the giant dog. "One down." I move away as another fang attack roars by. Kiba jumps to Akamaru and checked him over. He seemed to be seething in his anger. "Good. Give in to your anger." I say over dramatically just to show how I'm not taking him seriously.

"FUCK YOU! Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Kiba summons a clone as he and the clone transform into a giant two headed dog. The giant dog goes into his attack.

"Well, that's a thing." I look to the corner of my eye as I find Kurotsuchi binding Chojuro's feet in some sort of cement like substance while Kenjuro strikes, knocking the swordsman out. I won't be the one calling out for help. "Water Style: Water Vortex Jutsu!" A roaring vortex of water, rotating the opposite direction as Kiba, clashes with the dog attack. The dog attack powers through, but the water slows the massive beast. Follow up! I pull my left hand back, charging wind chakra into it just like the Hyuuga Open Air Palm. However. . . "Wing Style: Wind Blade Jutsu Alpha!" I place my right hand near the palm and use the air palms power to fuel the Wind Blade, making a much stronger slash that could more than likely decapitate a few people easily. The slash hits the slowed dog. What happens when a Shadow Clone gets hit? The whole dog poofs as Kiba falls from the cloud just before I rocket my fist into his jaw, launching him away unconscious.

Hmmmm, where is Hiyori. Oh! She jumps from the trees with another body in tow. The one that was supposed to stop the ambush. Wow. He did so well. One would say this team was set to lose. Oh well. Time to move on and-

"Mind Transfer Jutsu!" I turn around to find that Ino girl still in her earth prison, but with her hands together at her chest. She had enough room for hand signs. I look over and find Hiyori jump beside the blonde unconscious body with her own kunai to her own throat. This is where my anger began to rise.

"Let her go-"

"Ah ah. You stand down from my teammate, or I slit her throat." Tch. You could tell this chick was incredibly weak. This was probably her trump card. She only got Hiyori cause Hiyori had been doing something else. "Now get away from my team!"

Heh. She must be one dumb bitch to think she can threaten me. Just before she says anything else though, her expression shocks as Shikamaru walks up behind. "None of that, Ino. We all know if you let her get hurt, it also hurts you yourself." Okay, I didn't know that, but it made me feel better that it was a bluff. Not by much. I look to find Shikamaru's shadow linked with Hiyori's body. Shikamaru leaned in. "And you know that I can hold my jutsu longer than you can hold yours. I'm also willing to bet that Hiyori is fighting you back and will probably break free of this before either of us loses that much chakra. Give up."

". . . . . fine." The jutsu ends as Ino in the prison stirs while Hiyori turns around with a death stare. Of course, I wanted my own revenge, but someone else took advantage.

"SUCK IT INO PIG!" Sakura jumps in and super punches Ino out of the Earth Prison and into the ground. OKAY, PUNISH HER BUT DON'T KILL HER! Oh, well. Just don't piss the pink haired bitch off. Sakura stood proud with a smile plastered on her face. We gathered back around as we assessed our captives.

"We were only told to bring the leader. Who do you think it is?" Asked Kurotsuchi.

"Definitely not the one that held back. The leader has to stay with the squad, so the one Hiyori took out was not the leader. The three that got caught in the trap weren't either since they were meant to smoke us out to the main fighters, so the leader has to be one of them. Ino wasn't the leader since anyone with a brain knows not to listen to her."

"That and she looks like a slut." Muttered Hiyori. More than likely pissed about the possession thing. Sakura bonks her over the head, however.

"Don't say that about my friend!" Hiyori twisted around to bitch slap Sakura as the two almost got into a cat fight before Hinata grabs Sakura and pulls her back while Kenjuro pulls Hiyori away by the hair.

"It wasn't Chojuro, although he was the strongest member of the group. He's too uncertain and shy to lead them." Kenjuro stated.

"K-kiba can be inspiring sometimes. . ." Hinata seemed to say, considering he's the only source of inspiration for her team more than likely.

"He seemed really hot headed. He snapped as soon as I hurt his dog. Compassionate towards the dog, but that led to him losing his focus. He wouldn't be leader material." That was my evaluation. That left the Tenten girl slumped over Temari.

"A girl. Troublesome." Shikamaru said to himself, once again gaining a death glare from the women around.

"'Troublesome', 'What a drag', make your mind up and also. . ." Shikamaru ducks a kunai from Temari. "Watch what you say!"

"Whatever. Let's go." And we all traveled away in the same formation as when we entered the valley.

. . .

"Well, you guys made it back in only one day." Kakashi looked at his group. He did a little eye smile as the man in green spandex beside him cried anime tears. "I guess that means my group won the challenge for me. Add on to the fact that they captured one of YOUR students, with MY student in the group. I think that's a fair win. Don't you say, Guy?"

"KAAAAKASHIIIIII I will defeat you and gain my wins back, but you pulling ahead only shows why you're my rival. Fine, the score is now Myself-50 and you-51." Guy turned and left the room to wait for the squad he informed about the exam to come back.

"So how'd we do?" I asked.

"Not bad. Your whole team advances to the second exam. See, if you were not able to complete the exam within two days, you automatically fail. Jonin need to be able to notice the situation and react fast. You all managed that. Although, seeing as how you avoided direct conflict with any other teams is more than a little good luck. The group portion of the exam is over, more or less. You are all still classified as Group 7, but the next exam is based around the individual rather than how well you function in the group."

"What do you mean Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked.

"Well, it shows that all of you added to the success of your team in the first exam, which shows that you can handle missions on the level of that of a Jonin. Then again, a lot of Chunin can do that, so now we have to check your combat level in one on one fights like the ending of the chunin exams. Only difference here is that the only people watching will be the Tsuchikage, the proctors, and the Hokage."

"Wait! Why in the HELL is the Hokage going to be here?" Kurotsuchi fumed at that.

"She's using this to mend the ties between the Stone and Leaf, so she will be attending too. She would try this with the Raikage as well, but things are still iffy after that failed Hyuuga kidnapping about a decade or so ago." WOW. The Raikage has quite the balls to try that. Hinata seemed to shiver at the mention too. Could she have been the intended victim?

"Okay. So now it's one on one fights. Against eachother?"

"You will each get a single fight against another fighter here. If a fight seems too one side, the victor will only prove why they are Jonin level, and if the loser does not hold their own for a certain amount of time, they cannot even be considered. Jonin need to at the very least be able to buy time for their allies in certain scenarios." Kakashi turned with his book in hand. "Now, get some rest. Tomorrow the final exam hits."


	3. Jonin Exams: Part 2!

Okay. Half way there. We had spent the whole day resting and getting to know the other members of the group. Hiyori seemed to get along best with Temari and Kurotsuchi. She even started helping Temari do pranks on Shikamaru for a little bit. Kenjuro, while usually not too talkative, was still nice enough to communicate with Shikamaru, Sakura, and Hinata. I tried getting around to everyone, although Shikamaru and Hinata were the main two.

"Okay. Now why in the hell is it called the Leaf Village?" The pineapple haired guy looked at me like I grew a second head.

". . . cause it's in the leaves. . ."

"But that doesn't hide it for shit from what you say. I mean, We hide our village in mist. That can hide it. The Cloud village. . . self explanatory. The Sand village at least has a huge ass desert so you can lose your location easily so that's hidden unless you know the terrain. How in the hell is yours hidden? The walls of the village are higher than the tree line and you have a huge fuck off size mountain with your leaders' faces on it." I wave my arms to emphasize the 'Huge fuck off size' part. He seemed to look confused for a second. ". . . you're a Nara and you never thought of it, did you?"

". . . What a drag." He went back to the Shogi game he and Kenjuro had started. Needless to say both me and Kenjuro kept trying and. . . . fuck the Naras. They HAVE to be cheating.

Kakashi walked in as he looked around for all of us. "Well, nice to see members of four of the great nations getting along so well. The next exam is about to start, so please follow me." Welllllll fuck. Was kinda enjoying the peace and quiet.

. . .

Well. . . damn. This place is nice. The second exam room was where the one on one fights were to take place. For the Stone Village, the stadium was underground. Same size as the one from the other villages, such as the leave village chunin exam stadium, but it was completely under and even had a river going through with rocky terrain. One could definitely see that it was more fitting for people who used their surroundings. Our team gathered in the center as we looked towards another team that had gotten this far as well. This meant only 16 candidates for Jonin. We could tell the rough battles the other team went through. I decided to break the ice, but my loud mouth sister got there first.

"The HELL happened with you guys?" They all glared at her. "What was your mission?"

"Gain a certain document from a single specific team. We went through three teams before finding it." A guy in an all black jump suit and war paint known as Kankuro stated as we all went wide eyed.

"You guys went through that many fights? Why?" Sakura.

"Ask the dumba-"

"BECAUSE THE POWER OF YOUTH FLOWS THROUGH OUR TEAM LIKE NO OTHER!"

. . . . . . . . . .

"What the fuck are you? A Guy clone?" Hiyori used the most dead voice possible.

"I am the pure hardworking talent of Might Guy's tutelage. I will showcase my power to prove myself. Isn't that right Sakura!" He gave a nice guy pose and thumbs up to Sakura, who smiled nerviously.

"He really isn't stupid, but he needs to learn how to tone it the hell down." She said only to our group as we sweat dropped.

"I had to shut him down to keep us from going after your group, too." Another man came up, this one was the Hyuuga we had heard about.

"Neji I assume?" I spoke to him.

"Yes. It seems you might be strong. I did not think Hinata or Sakura would make it this far. Although, maybe you and your siblings carried the team. I guess we'll see." My eye twitched in anger at that. Yeah, he complimented me, but at the expense of his cousin. Although, you could tell he didn't mean disrespect towards her, he just plain was surprised she came this far. Still, to outright say it more than angered you. Never EVER put down a family member. Suddenly, the Tsuchikage spoke up.

"Welcome to the second and final stage of the Jonin exam! This stage is to test full combat capability. You are each capable of working with a group to complete a Jonin level task. This test merely shows whether you are able to hold yourself up. You must always hold yourself up before being expected to train others to do the same as a Jonin sensei. As such. Let us move this along. . . .Hokage?" Onoki turned to a blonde woman who was WAY too damn hott to be a ninja.

"We shall choose your opponents the same way as the preliminary exam for the Chunin exam is done. Computer randomization. Now, let this begin!"

Everyone went up to the catwalk. The first two candidates went up for their face off. Kurotsuchi vs some Samui person from the Cloud. Kurotsuchi won, albeit barely. She came back up to us as she high fived Temari while grinning at Hinata, who smiled back.

Next fight was Sakura vs some no name from the Stone. Kurotsuchi, having known the person, called the match as Sakura being the winner. The match lasted seven minutes as he was a ranged fighter, but it finally ended when Sakura punched out the ground to break his footing as she basically used his body to break the arena. She won the match, but apparently the match either didn't last long enough or neither fought on a high enough level to be considered Jonin. She seemed depressed, but Kenjuro gave a good back pat and a smile that seemed to calm her down. She over came her opponent, so she should still be proud.

Next was a good one. We looked at the computer. This was when we realized it. It was OUR team vs there's! Hiyori Lamperouge vs Neji Hyuuga. Neji jumped down to the arena as Hiyori seemed all too eager. "Gonna put that ass wipe in his place." She took care to pull her scroll out as I put my hand on her shoulder.

"He seems like a combat beast. Be VERY careful." She nodded but gave a toothy grin before Kenjuro cut her off from replying. "And if he tries to make a killing blow, I WILL enter and kill him."

"fine." She jumped down as they met in the middle and bowed in respect. He was my age. A year older than her. (This character is Lee's age, not Naruto's.) She unraveled her scroll, which had four seals place. She activated the first seal as a puppet appeared. It had a darkened dry blood red colored cloth covering its body while the face looked like that of an elder bald man. The puppet's head had a large cross scar on it and a beard on it. Neji raised his eye brows while me and Kenjuro smirked at Kankuro's reaction.

"How the hell does she know one of our village's arts?"

"She reverse engineered it. It isn't a blood line trait, so its not impossible for others to use it." I replied knowingly pissing off the man who seemed proud about that having been his villages trademark.

The proctor jumped between them, Kakashi. He held his hand up before throwing it down and jumping away. The two fighters simply faced off. Neji getting into the Gentle Fist position. Hiyori steps back as Neji inches towards her. Come on, Hiyori. Don't rush in. He can shut you down. In one swift second, her puppet releases blades at the wrist, a katar and hidden blade, as it goes on the offensive. Neji simply side steps and parries the attacks. He ducks a slash and launches the puppet back with a palm strike. The puppet raises its leg to kick as he catches it, only to find the entire leg hollowed as reinforced seeing explosive tags inside explode, launching a fireball at his pointblank.

"Rotation!" He blocks the explosion and separates himself from the puppet, which thanks to the reinforced leg, managed to remain undamaged. It raised its other leg, revealing the same secret as before, launching a ranged fireball of explosive force. "AIR PALM!" His air palm blasts through the mini fireball into the puppet as he charges Hiyori. At first, she seems caught, but snaps a bracelet off her left wrist as her left hand shoots up faster than before parrying Neji's palm strike. He looks in surprise as her right hand calls the puppet back with its blades.

She jumps away as Neji spins around catching the puppet arm before it could kill him. He takes his free hand to slash the chakra strings controlling the puppet. He turns back, finding new strings from her left hand already maneuvering around him into the puppet, before he can cut them, the puppet raises both arms, revealing firing gun barrels. Neji uses a substitution as a large flamethrower blast hits the area his was at. The puppet falls back to Hiyori as she searches for him.

I know how she works. She hates the whole search and destroy process. She prefers just destroy. I turn to Kankuro. "How is she?"

He seemed confused for a moment. "Well, her methods are a lot more straightforward than most puppet masters would like, but for someone who reverse engineered it herself, it's DAMNED impressive. But. . . what the hell is she doing with human puppets." Everyone seemed to become alerted at that. They looked to me first to explain, but I turned to Kenjuro, hoping for backup. Thank god for him.

"It isn't technically a human puppet. Our village has had a lot of gory times in the past. A lot of corpses and such. When she was making her ultimate puppets as she put it, she was against the idea of using someone to make it, but wanted it above average. As such, we decided to help her engineer an artificial chakra network in the puppets. The puppet's chakra network takes on the nature affiliation of the network it is based from. As you can guess. This one was fire. It's her absolute favorite, named Yama. As a show of respect of where it comes from, she makes the puppet look like the original person the artificial network is modeled after. Since it is artificial, she has to charge it with her own chakra to recharge it since its network doesn't automatically restore like a regular one or a human puppet's. That is why she required a large amount of prep time for her to fight at full power."

"Which she didn't use anything while out of the first exam other than her higher than average level of taijutsu, something she specialized in before learning this as a chunin." I chimed in. Everyone looked at us like we were gods. We just spoke the truth. "Just wait to see her other toys." I said before I groaned, causing everyone to look at me. Kenjuro closed his eyes and seemed annoyed.

"Phrasing." He said in his deep voice.

We all looked back as Hiyori got impatient. "FUCK IT!" She yelled as she started hand signs. "Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu!" She disappears into the ground, leaving her puppet as it hovered to the edge of the arena. Me and Hinata looked for Neji.

"He's hiding under the water." I said. Hinata agreed as she deactivated her Byakugon.

"He's going to wait until the next attack, then come out, having assumed this is her trump attack." She said calmly. No stutter! Probably because she doesn't seem to care much. "I want to root for both but. . . I feel ashamed that I want Hiyori and not Neji to win."

The puppet Yama then revealed two more valve like cannons on its shoulder. It strafed back and forth, spraying a coal colors smoke screen around the whole arena. Shikamaru went wide eyed. I can tell he already knows what this ash, erm, smoke does. The puppet stopped spraying as its second valve sprayed bright red layer of dust into the smoke screen. The dust like substance covered the land scape and even the water above Neji. Neji looks into the smoke cloud. Hehe. He sees the chakra inside. The puppet pulled up both arms and fires flames into the smoke, causing the whole arena to light up in a flash. The smoke screen ignites everything as the whole arena is damaged. The river protects Neji for the most part, but he looks around him as the red dust is blasted all around him. . . as it ignites.

"Asuma's Ash Cloud Jutsu does the same thing, but is that red stuff. . ."

"Thermite" I smirk at everyone's faces. "And that water won't protect Neji. Self oxidizing so it'll still ignite there."

Temari chuckles nervously. "Your sister is a pyro maniac. . ."

Both Kenjuro and I slump a bit and say simultaneously. "Tell me about it."

"Troublesome."

Neji erupts from the water with a rotation while the river boils from the thermite reacting beneath the water surface. He lands and dodges two fireballs from Yama as its legs launch fireball after fireball as more of the explosive tags in the hollow blast chamber ignite. I could swear I hear Hiyori laughing maniacally underground. Neji gets hit, but poofs away, being a shadow clone. I look as Neji appears below the puppet, kicking it high into the air. He jumps up after it in the Dancing Leaf Shadow. Everyone gasps at this. Lee even says "That's my set up."

Neji grabs the back of the puppet and spins around, throwing it into the ground hard. It raises its arms to use its flamethrowers, but Neji blocks it as he comes down with a giant rotation. The rotation smashes into the puppet, crushing it. He gets up and turns to find Hiyori getting up out of the ground by her scroll she laid out earlier. She breaths heavily as she places her hands on the next seal. Just as she summoned another puppet, Neji poofed out of existence, being another clone. The real Neji slams on top of the puppet before Hiyori could do anything with it. She starts try to distance herself but Neji moves much faster. He started attacking her full force as she blocks and parries all she can. He palms her back, causing her to be stunned and fall to a knee. Neji stood there a few meters away.

"I wanted you to at least show what you could do. I have an idea of how you fight, and you're a monster fighter, but to let you go further would be a huge mistake on my part. I must end this prematurely. . . You're in range." It seemed as though all of existence went black as the ground glowed with a symbol of the eight trigrams. In an instance he dashes at her, hitting twice the same as Tenten has been hit by Hinata. I clenched my fists in anger. "Two palms. Four palms. Eight palms. Sixteen palms. Thirty-two palms. Eight Trigrams Sixty-four Palms." He hit it all as she fell to the ground, out cold. I looked hard then breathed out in relief. She's alive.

Kakashi announced it. "Winner: Neji Hyuuga! Due to your control of all the situations given and using ample time to analyze your opponent before making a premature attack, you are rewarded with the title of Jonin."

Neji nodded as he returned to the stands with Hiyori in his arms. Kenjuro jumped down as he gathered all the puppet pieces and sealed them away. He brought the scroll back up as Neji laid Hiyori down for Sakura to heal. Neji was at least a much better person than I gave credit for. He and Hinata smiled at each other and then we moved on to the next round.

Kankuro vs Hinata Hyuuga. The fight actually, like the one with Sakura, went on far too long. Kankuro was rewarded with Jonin due to him holding his own in such a mismatch. It was true for that and with Neji and Hiyori's match. Hyuuga specialized in defense and shutting down anything having to do with chakra. They could see attack coming early, deflect attacks from all directions at once, it was bullshit to match up like that. Especially twice in a row. Kankuro DID win, but only after all three of his puppets were destroyed trying to attack Hinata while waiting for his poison to take effect after a poison cloud attack that he himself got caught in, but he had an antidote for it, which he gave Hinata afterwards. They would have let her become a Jonin, but found her confidence not on a level to be one.

Next, Shikamaru won against yet another no name. Cycle that process again for Kenjuro and Temari. All three were rewarded with the Jonin class. That only left two people as the computer confirmed. Stating: _**HAYATO LAMPEROUGE VS ROCK LEE**_


	4. Jonin Exams: Part 3! End

_**HAYATO LAMPEROUGE VS ROCK LEE**_

We both jumped into the arena as Rock Lee wore a smirk just like mine. We met in the middle as he extended his hand to me. I smirked more as I shook his hand. "Let this be a beautiful match up indeed."

"Agreed." I spoke. We separated as Kakashi threw his hand down.

"Begin!" Kakashi jumped back up to Tsunade's side.

He took his hidden leaf taijutsu stance. I took a traditional stance.

. . .

We stood just staring each other down, until he seemingly disappeared with speed. He was right on top of me. "LEAF HURRICANE!" Super roundhouse kick is more like it. I block the kick with block arm in a high block while Lee's back is to me, I push the kick over my head as I catch the next, stopping the attack. I swing him down to slam him to the ground, but he straight catches himself on the ground. He uses his free leg to kick me away as he cart wheel then black flips away. I skid across the ground and stop as I then dash at him, being the attacking on. Just before reaching him I flick my hand at him.

"Wind Blade Jutsu!" Lee ducks the blade as it goes over his head. He spins on the ground in a lightning fast sweep kick. "LEAF WHIRLWIND!"

I jump over the kick and twist in the air to kick him, but he skids away while my shin crashes into the ground, causing a crater. I whip my hand around launching another slash towards him. He as he launches a series of punches and kicks. I block them each, but he pushes me back as he fights. I finally parry a punch in a way to knock him off balance as I throw a kick. He, meanwhile, spins his body around so we each kick each other in the face. The hits knock us both back as we skid to a halt. We stare down again. I can hear the audience up stares.

"DAMN! I can barely keep up with them." Kurotsuchi was handing out compliments? Rare.

"He's just as fast as Lee!" Sakura too. Lee was apparently a tough contender. I could tell by now.

Lee then knelt down and proceeded to lower his leg warmers, revealing two leg weights. He took them off as he looked like someone who just took a hot shower, completely refreshed. He threw both weight up into the air. "You may want to prepare yourself with your best." He warned. I took the warning but didn't see what the difference would be.

I moved bother of my wrist bands, revealing silver bracelet like bracers that I then unlocked. I knelt down as I pulled my pants legs up to remove two more. There's NO way his weights are better than mine. Lee's weights finally hit the ground, causing two MASSIVE plumes of debris and shudders on the ground. Okay, I might want to remeasure the comparison. I through the braces up to my brother as I'm sure he'll explain them. They feed off of chakra and, once released, give all the chakra they've fed off back, giving a massive rejuvenation to chakra reserves and increase to physical ability. Lee smiled as I did before he completely disappeared from my vision, or so everyone thought. I threw my arms up to block a kick from behind. I grabbed the leg as I through him away. We separated. I could tell Neji and Hinata were both watching intensely now. Lee charged back in directly with a jump kick. I went to my hand signs.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu! Water Clone Jutsu!" Seven clones appeared around me as Lee charged. He clashed with the clones as I jumped back with more signs. "Earth Style: Mud Wall Jutsu!" A large wall cut Lee off from myself and the clones. Quickly I hid my surprise. I gave the order as all seven clones leaped around the wall. They attack Lee as Lee went of the defensive in the taijutsu fight. He hit one of my clone's hits upward, throwing it off balance as he threw it into another, seeing both poof. Shadow clones. Now he had five surround him. "LEAF WHIRLWIND." The added speeds from the weight loss made it almost impossible to block. All five were kicked off balance. He struck each one, finding the first four as shadow clones, until the last. "HAH!" He punched through the last, as it turned to water. . . revealing a paper bomb.

I did the one handed sign to activate it, exploding and sending Lee off into the water, although he managed to speed away before getting hurt too much. He rose from the river and stood staring at the wall separating me from him. Heh, he still doesn't know how I can see what he does. I weave some signs together. "Earth Style: Rock Shot!" I start to punch the wall as massive rocks break from the opposite side at Lee with tremendous accuracy. He dodges left of the first. Under the second. Over and onto the third and jump away from it and to the side of the fourth. He use more hand signs. "Earth Style: Mud Dragon Bomb!" A giant giant mud dragon head forms from the mud wall as it fires shuriken sized rock/mud shots at Lee like a machine gun. Lee dodged them all over course. He finally charged at the wall before disappearing. Oh, this was bad. I saw it coming, but could not react to the foot hitting my chin, launching me into the sky, over the wall. Lee launched himself up behind me as I realize what he meant earlier about Neji using his style.

Thinking fast, I activate my Wind Aura Jutsu. Would have been enough to match that speed just not, but time to make up for it. Lee's bandages start to wrap around until my wind whirls me around. I punch Lee across the jaw as it causes his body to twist around, his back to me. I grab him just like to was about to. We both tilt towards the ground as we start to pick up speed. I image that I could let go at the last second until Lee's bandages tighten and lock me in. "If I shall go down, so will you." This guy is fierce. . . and I'm not hitting the ground like that. Once again, I need to think fast. I focus my whole wind aura jutsu to my head. Lee yells the name of his technique, despite it not working out as he intended. "PRIMARY LOTUS!"

The crash never came. He looked up, erm, up to him, but down to everyone else to see the ground, and the wind from my aura holding us from the ground while his bandages still had us locked together. Seeing how it failed, he releases his bandages as he and I kick each other away but both skid to a halt. I look up at him ready for round two, only to find him gasping a bit. Right. The Eight Inner Gates. He must be a practitioner. That only means I can't let him use any more. I almost continue before Neji screams out. "I CALL THAT THIS MATCH BE CANCELLED NOW!"

I look at him, having expected this. "On what grounds?"

He glares at me. "On the grounds that you explain why you have all the traits of a Byakugon! This man has a stolen kekkei genkai. He should be put to death!" I just stare impatiently back.

"Like these eyes belong to a hyuuga. . ."

"What was that?" Neji almost flared at it.

I laughed out loud. "Just wait until after the match. After all. . ." I look up as everyone goes shocked. Kakashi seems the most shocked. My white eyes contained three tomo. "Sharingan." A white Sharingan. "Sorry Lee, but like Neji did with my sister, I need to stop you from using the gates. Thanks for showing me how to do this." Thanks to Wind Aura, I can pull this off without a gate.

He seemed confused until I disappeared from his sight, launching my foot into his chin and launching him into the sky. I appear behind him as I can tell he is far more than surprised. Instead of the Lotus, I roundhouse kick his side, possibly snapping a rib or two before grabbing his chunin flak jacket and launching him into the ground. He lands on his back, being indented into the ground. He looks up just in time to see me spinning horizontal while coming down. The shin of my roundhouse kick crushes into his chest, knocking him further into the ground and possible cracking most of his ribcage. I jump off and flip in the air before landing on my feet. "Heaven's Barrage."

I could swear I heard a laugh coming from everyone, like this sort of thing was done before, but I don't question it. I'm still badass. I look to the kage with my Sharingan as it deactivates, leaving a pupil less set of eyes before the pupil appears after a second. "I win."

Kakashi decided to use his eye smile. "I guess you have. The same as Neji, you remained in control, let yourself see your enemy's potential, and rid yourself of the threat of their ultimate techniques. You also show a large amount of power that you're still withholding. Plus, you have the capability to get stronger faster with the Sharingan. You will be awarded the rank of Jonin. . . as long as you agree to a full questioning about your background by Konoha officials only, your siblings shall have to participate as well."

I knew as much. . . fuck.

. . .

Kenjuro, Hiyori, Neji, Hinata, Sakura, Shikamaru, Kakashi, Might Guy, and the hokage Tsunade sat in an enclosed room. Oh my god, will she change her stare. I think I'd rather she kill me than sit and enjoy that. . .look. "Your eyes. Explain."

"Well, obviously it's a bloodline thing." I joked, only being rewarded with a room full of killing intent. Kenjuro to the rescue.

"All three of us have the same mother. My father is a deceased Hozuki clan member. Their father was of a different clan."

"So their father had the Byakugon? A rogue ninja?" Tsunade twitched her eyebrow at the possibility.

"No. Our mother was a full blood Hyuuga member. She was also what was referred to as a main household member, although we never knew what that truly meant." He spared a glare at Neji. "You're what she referred to as a Branch member, given your attitude." Neji glared back. "While my brother here gained the advantages of the Byakugon, neither I nor my half sister Hiyori gained that. I favor my father's side." Tsunade frowned.

"He also has the Sharingan. . . You can't be serious."

"Mine and Hiyori's father was an Uchiha. . ." I spoke up. "I gained the traits of both sides. Hiyori presumably inherited our father's side, given her black eyes, but has yet to unlock the Sharingan. Although, with all the rumors of the Uchiha Massacre, we try our best to prevent her doing so cause she would become a target of many." Hiyori grunted in annoyance to the idea as Tsunade seemed to understand the situation.

"So you're the children of not one, but two Konoha rogue ninja-"

My foot smacked the mock desk she was leaning on as I propped my foot up to get more relaxed. The Konoha ninja seemed taken aback by the show of disrespect. "I don't mean to be disrespectful, Lord Hokage, but don't insult my parents, and I'll respect you. My mother was not a missing nin. She was a prisoner of war by the Cloud Village long ago. She was broken out before they could do anything with the Byakugan. She was saved by Mist ninja. She went willingly with them. It was due to her escape that we came to learn years after we were born how desperate they were to regain the chance they lost. . ."

Neji had some understanding now. "The night Lady Hinata was almost kidnapped. That was their attempt to get it back. The result was my father's death. So I guess it was a tradeoff. Your mother was saved. My father died." Now I understand his pissy bitch attitude a bit more. Me being here just reminds him of it I bet.

"Yes. She lived in the village and eventually got together with Kenjuro's dad, but . . ."

"Kisame Hoshigaki killed him, back when he took the sword Samehada and left the village." Hiyori spoke in a sad tone. She looked over the Kenjuro who showed no emotion to this. "Our mother mainly stayed with the mist to raise him, until she finally went on a mission as a Mist shinobi. She then met and old friend of hers from when she was part of Konoha. His name was Kagami Uchiha."

Tsunade went wide eyed. "Shisui the Teleporter's father?"

Well, that's new info. We didn't even know that much about him, and we had another half brother. Hiyori seemed just as surprised, but continued. "Yeah. He started taking missions close to where she would so they could meet and, well. . ."

"Hiyori never got a real chance to know him." I interrupted. "I had met him a few times and understood he was a great man, but with how it was all a secret, it wasn't often. Finally, the Uchiha massacre happened and we stayed way from trying to use our eyes. Needless to say, our father is dead isn't he?"

". . .Yeah." Tsunade seemed down to say that and everyone else started to look away.

"And Shisui? Even if we just now learned about him, did he live?" I asked already knowing the answer.

"No. . .we had found a body, but there was speculation about it being a fake, but he did disappear completely. No trace." Tsunade stated.

I smiled. "Well, that's something. So are we guilty of something not of our control? Or are you going to hunt down our mom for having settled down instead of coming home?"

Everyone seemed conflicted about it. . . "Has the Mist village done anything about your presence? Any sort of experimentation? I know for a fact that you telling us is treason to your village, but understand that anything of the sort is a direct treasonous act towards us and we WILL take action."

"Nope. The Mist is actually against adding our kekkei genkai to the village since the Mist had tried to hard to be rid of several others it deemed not safe to have around in the past."

"Like Haku's clan. . ." Sakura mumbled to herself, but everyone let that go.

"So can we go home, now?" Kenjuro asked.

"Of course. I apologize for the way we've treated you these past few minutes. Although, I will need to speak with your Mizukage about this. What is your mother's name? And your real names?"

"Karra Hyuuga. And I'm Kenjuro Hozuki still, although I still can consider those of Hyuuga as family.

"Hiyori Uchiha. My mother wanted my name to be our father's since hearing of the massacre."

"Hayato Hyuuga. Although my dad actually gave me a different name at birth if I chose it. Hayato Uchiha." I waved non chalantly. "I don't care which."

We all got up to leave. I spared a look at each of them. Shikamaru nodded and smirked. Sakura smiled warmly at us, although I don't know why. Kakashi gave a curt nod. Neji bowed his head and apologized for his reactions earlier. I accepted before Hinata stopped us next. She smiled at each of us.

"Take care Brothers. Sister." We looked confused for a second until she went back to Neji and explained that whole thing. Overall, we felt good about it. We now knew much more about our extended family. And that made us something that in hindsight, we should have ignored.

It made us curious. . .


	5. The Trip With Meetings

Okay. So needless to say, Mei was not happy about this. It has been a few months since the Jonin exams. We've taken a liking to the position. Although the perk we were asking for right now was causing Mei to pinch her nose and shut her eyes. People know this woman as one thing. Drop dead sexi or deadly disguised as sexi. If she and Tsunade ever teamed up to kill someone, you can best your ass I'd rather stay the night in Satan's dark room than be with these witches. She looked us over a bit.

"I literally just got done with all the questioning and meetings with the Hokage. We have come to an agreement that we can use this situation to bring the villages close together and make the Mist part of the Leaf and Sand's alliance. The problem I have with this is the same I had with the Hokage. She asked this as well."

This surprised us. We had come in to demand that we have the right to visit Konoha for an extended period of time. The fact that Tsunade was adamant about giving us that chance too should have made it much easier. "What exactly is the problem?" Hiyori whined.

"You guys and your mother are going to be able to go. . ." Mei started, letting us all light up. "But on the condition that you must take your Sensei as well." OH GOD WHY! My brother and sister thought the same as both immediately dead voiced with me. "WHY!?"

"Because. . . The mist has been your home for your whole lives. This could easily be a stunt to pull you back to their village and we would lose you. I want to send someone with you to remind you that you have a home here as well. You all have the right to choose which, but I wouldn't feel it a fair choice if I didn't at least push my point in." We all sighed in defeat. Fuck sound logic. Why did it have to be THAT man. Ugh. "Now, go get your mother and don't think about leaving Kasuya Naro behind." She flashed her killing intent making us all cringe like we had when we were academy students.

. . .

"MOM, WE'RE HOME!" Hiyori yelled into the family sized apartment. As if on cue, Karra Hyuuga rounded the corner. Looking fairly young still. She had long blackish hair. Her hair looked more like Mikoto Uchiha.**(sasuke's mom)** He facial features seamed like Hinata's. Soft and nice. Of course, her eyes were pale white with no pupils. She smiled at her children.

"What happened?"**(Her voice would be a friendlier motherly version of Anko's voice)** she could always see through us easily. She could tell we had both good and bad news. Something that came from her Hyuuga background. Her smile was comforting. "Tell me the good part first."

"We're going to the Leaf as soon as possible. We'll be able to spend the next six months there." Explained Kenjuro. **(Note there is still two months until the beginning of Shippuden.) **

"Good. I'll be able to see Tsunade again. The bad part?" She feigned concern, she liked to toy with us when she already knew what was coming. That's where most of our sarcasm came from.

"The jackass is coming with us. . ." I answered.

She laughed out loud before correcting herself, whacking each of us on the head with a book and scolding us. "He is your sensei! You should show him respect!"

"Yes ma'am." We all apologized with anime tears.

"Good." She was immediately back to her serene look. Okay well she never left her serene attitude. She was always calm. Part of what makes her scary. You never know what the fuck she'll say. Another Hyuuga thing, she said. I guess now we're going to find out why. . .

. . .

We finally showed up to our. . . 'sensei's' house. We knocked on the door while hearing some electrical sparks inside. Finally the door opened and there he was. Kasuya Naro, Jonin of the Mist village, also known as The Doctor. Misleading title I assure you. He's a sick fuck. He has silver hair kept nice, not too long. Big round glasses. Regular Jonin/Anbu outfit for the Mist.(Zabuza's outfit, but with t-shirt sleeves but for his no arm warmers.) His eyes were golden as he looked at you. He was an almost un-paralleled practitioner for quote unquote 'Combat Medicine.' He has an unhealthy addiction to dissection. Ironic seeing as how he was never allowed to do anything with any of us as per the Mizukage's orders. It annoys him, which is the only thing we laugh at around him. He also always wore a white/gray trench coat. (Like Anko's but actually is buttoned with two buttons at the chest. And yes, This character is ENTIRELY based around Stein from soul eater, just without the screw and stitches.)

"Oh. Is it time to leave?" His bored voice rung out like a screech to us. "Was I late? I'm sorry. I was just finishing my last analysis."

"We were waiting for three hours, ass!" Hiyori spoke out as he simply shrugged it off. He went back inside and came back with a backpack much like we each have.

"You already packed? Yet you were late because you went back to work?" Kenjuro asked in a dead voice.

"Science waits for no one. Sooner of later, though, you get dissected. I want to learn all I can before I'm the one BEING dissected. Shall we go? I hate waiting." SEE! FUCK this guy. We've been dealing with this shit for six years. I grunt as we head for the gate. We see Ao at the gates as he gives us a polite nod. Having a Byakugan transplant, he had helped with a lot of my sensory training. But one thing is on our minds now. Time to go to Konoha!

. . .

We stopped in several towns along the way, but this? This one was the liveliest. Why? . . . WAYYYY too many porn shops and brothels. The only one of us siblings who were old enough to enjoy this town was Kenjuro, and we were pretty sure he was asexual. My mom, like me, thoroughly enjoyed perverted jokes, but hated actual perverts. Hiyori was like that too. . . but remember, she's sadistic about fucking with their heads. We actually had to STOP her from flirting with two thirty year olds she was going to torture. Innocent and evil in the creepiest ways, I swear.

We were going through, finding a good place to eat. Hmm. Yamcha's Ramen Buffet. We went in and, there was only one other table taken. We walked over to the table next to them, seeing as how they would know how the food was. That was when we saw it. THERE WAS NO FOOD! It was a damn buffet for crying out loud. We turned to them to ask when the white haired old man sighed and bonked the blonde over the head. "See. I told you eating here for breakfast, lunch, and dinner today would be selfish on your part."

"Ehhh, shut up pervy sage. They were going to sell it anyway."

"It's a buffet idiot! We just had to pay once. You're ruining their business." He talked scoldingly to the younger man. He then took a more friendly tone. "I mean these nice people here are sure to want something, right? . . . .STOP EATING DAMN IT!" He hit the kid again on the head. "You're bankrupting this place!"

"Awwww, I just want ramen so bad. I miss ichiraku." The blonde looked up to us while we just stared at them. "Sorry. I get hungry easily."

"It's okay. We can find somewhere else to eat. There has to be someplace with a better selection than here." My mom was always kind to people. I insisted on making friends often too.

"Besides, there should be something else here kid friendly. This place is pervert central."

The old man chuckled with a know it all tone. "You, dear boy just do not know the attractiveness of such beautiful works of art and pleasure." As soon as he finished, my mother flared some killing intent as she twisted the old man's ear.

"Now, Jiraiya, do I need to do what Tsunade isn't here to do?" She said with a serene smile on her faced. That's when all of us turned to the old man with shock. I mean, what would you do. You go into a buffet and casually find one of the strongest people in the world? You'd shit yourself if you made a hint of a bad impression.

"Karra?" He turned to them with wide eyes. "Yes, Karra Hyuuga! HAH! I knew you were alive! A-and these are your kids? He smiled at all of them with excitement few saw in the man. He looked at Kasuya behind us and deadpanned. "Is he the fa-"

"HELL FUCKING NO!?" Me, hiyori, and Kenjuro yelled simultaneously.

"Good. I can tell who you are. You're not much better than the snake are ya?" Jiraiya said as Kasuya just shrugged a bit and smirked. He then gets bonked up side the head by the blonde who through an empty bowl.

"And you get onto me for manners." The kid got up. Just as tall as me, but still both shorter than Kenjuro. We shook hands. "Naruto Uzumaki!" I stopped. Well, so much for the guy being built up. This blonde guy was Hinata's inspiration and Sakura's teammate? Well, you wanted to know about him.

"Hayato. . . Hyuuga. Feels weird saying that out loud for once." I looked to my mom. She nodded approvingly.

"I'm Karra Hyuuga. Nice to finally meet you Naruto. H-" Jiraiya cut her off with a look only she and I caught. Mom kept quiet.

Hiyori took Naruto's hand with both of her's as she went hyper. "Hiyori Hyuuga. Hinata told me SOO much about you!:

Naruto seemed baffled by that. "What? You guys saw recently?" He suddenly seemed more curious. "She's doing okay, isn't she? I know Hyuuga tend to be stuck, especially to her."

"Oh, believe me, I know." Mom answered.

"She's fine. She's awesome. She took the Jonin exams with us!" Hiyori exclaimed.

"DANG! She must be AWESOME! A Jonin. I need to treat her to ramen, belive it!"(Okay that's the ONLY time I'm putting that in. lol just for some reactions to the phrase.) Kenjuro smirked and spoke.

"She's strong but she did not pass. The only Leaf ninja to pass were Neji Hyuuga and Shikamaru Nara. I'm Kenjuro Hozuki, by that way." Naruto took this in.

"Eh, I'm not surprised. Shikamaru was the first of us to make Chunin. Hell, I'm still a GENIN!" We all vaulted into the floor. "What?"

"We heard you were strong and inspired them all, yet you're a genin?" I spoke the obvious.

Jiraiya defended his pupil. "We he would have earned the Chunin rank two and a half years ago, but the snake Orochimaru ruined that. Since then, the boy has been with me, training. He's probably stronger than most Jonin by this point." This put me back into curiosity.

"Well. . . we'll be in the hidden leaf for six months. How about a spar every now and then?" I offered.

"Sweet!" Naruto proclaimed.

With that, we ate. We shared some stories. Mostly Naruto asking about the Chunin exams, and us asking about Naruto's personal life due to our mom already being able to tell us Jiraiya's later. Unfortunately, the more we got into it, the most depressed mom seemed to get by Naruto. She still smiled fine, but I could tell. Eventually we began to part. We talked with Naruto a while longer while Mom spoke with Jiraiya one to one. When she came back, well, she was more than displeased to say the least. PISSED would be a better word. Down the road, we asked about it. All she said was one thing. 'The Hyuuga clan isn't the only group needing a beating in Konoha.' That stuck with us the rest of the trip.

. . .

We stopped in another town. This time, we were at least in the land of Fire. The only thing to note in this town was two things particularly.

We walked through the shopping area of the town. We got a few trinkets. Nothing major. But when we sat down in a diner, there was this one guy in the corner. He sat with a single companion as they discussed something we couldn't hear. I could tell the kid was my age, maybe a year below. He had jet black hair and blueish pants and white robe top. Some feeling just came off the guy. His companion has silver hair and glasses, making him suspiciously similar to Kasuya. . .

The second thing was us walking down the round out of town. It was quite nice until Hiyori bumbled into a kid with white hair and scrolls all over him. The guy immediately jumped up to help her up while another boy with white hair walked up, looking like a brother. They had a sensei in the background, but I didn't get a good look. We didn't introduce ourselves, but we were polite to each other. When they left, there was one thing he could make out. "Dang, Shinzo, watch your step. That's what happens when you take so many tools with ya. Never gonna move around much."

"Piss of Katto. I'm twice the ninja you'll EVER be."

The most we could tell were that they were from Kusa. They were Grass ninja.

. . .

Finally, we came through the forest. One more hill. we looked at each other and took a deep breath. One look, and we could see the stone faces. Mom had a few tears in her eyes. "What is it?" I asked.

"Seeing those faces is something I've missed for twenty years. To see the new ones is a pleasure." She smiled wide. Her smile only made me smile more. Let's get to this shit!


	6. The Avenger and The Genius!

The mission. That's all that matters. I'm getting more than a little tired waiting for assignments. A girl walked up to me. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

"I'm meeting someone. Leave me be." Neutral tone. This woman does not concern me. She walks away as a family walks into the crowded place. A mom, a Hyuuga by the look of it, a man who reminded me of who I'm meeting with, and three younger of different ages. The youngest two seemed closer to my age. They seemed content with their life. Something about them drew my attention. . .

Wait. . . bout god damn time. A man with silver hair walks into the pub and sits across from me. "You're late." Okay, I can be irritable.

He smiled and replied. "Sorry about that, Sasuke."

(Time to meet the other players. Sasuke- just turned 16. two months til Shippuden.)

DAMN IT! I'm late. I can't BELIEVE I let him talk me into this! Ugh.

I rush through the trees and finally make it to them. God, they could have waited! "Finally!"

Of course, he had to be a smart ass about it. "Took you long enough, Katto!" My brother shot me a sarcastic show of disappointment.

"Fuck you! I went back for one of YOUR damn special knives. Ugh, why did I have to go anyway!" I shot him an icy stare with my golden hazel eyes.

He just smirked at me. "Because I won the coin flip. I called heads. See?" He tosses the coin back at me as I caught it. . . . oh, that clever bastard.

"IT'S DOUBLE SIDED!"

"Well, I knew if we did rock, paper, scissors, you'd win." He said matter-of-factly.

I deadpanned. ". . .beCAUSE, oh great ninja tool master, you always pick scissors."

He shot back a nervous smile while sweat dropping. "It's my thing?"

"It's your thing to be stupid? Glad that you admit the mighty Katto is better than you, Shinzo!"

Okay, late introductions. I am Katto Kisaragi. Age? 16. Relatives? Brother obviously. Our mom and dad have both passed. Village? Hidden Grass, baby. Probably the only place where the phrase 'your ass is grass' is a complement. I have golden yellow eyes. White spiky hair. Black jacket with a single thick white stripe down the sleeves, pockets in the front, regular side pockets, and the symbol of the Grass on my back in white. The top half of the jacket is zipped down showing a navy blue undershirt. Complete with black ninja pants and a single sash with shuriken holster on the back. My headband it shown proudly on my head. I pride myself on being a clever person, so being outwitted by my brother was already showing today as one of 'those' days. Not that he's an idiot, but we always compete. One day, we'll settle which of us is the best and becomes the worst title ev- erm, I mean the Greatest Ninja of all Time Ever!. . . of all time. Okay that last of all time was me joking about it, but shut up, we thought it up when we were five for crying out loud.

I look to our sensei. "Kinvari sensei, can you separate us for different missions before I kill him?"

The man of few words, Kinvari sensei, brother to the Kusukage(Kage of the Grass). He looked back with steel blue eyes. He had a standard Jonin outfit, despite being the most identifiable and famous/infamous man of the Grass. He had a tough build and had brown hair combed back and a slightly aged face, but still young enough to be considered in his prime. His gaze was the kind that said, don't involve me with your stupid argument. "Fine." A deep voice answered. "Since our original mission was to oversee this area until further relief, you can check out the backwoods area. Patrol it until I send a messenger hawk for you." He turns to my brother. "You are going up North. Nothing's gone on up there for weeks, so it bothers me."

Hah! Give Shinzo the shit job. Although, mine won't be too eventful anyway.

. . .

Okay, I want Shinzo's job, damn it. At least there's people for him to talk to. This place? Deserted! And it started raining an hour ago, borderline storm. Ugh, oh well. I stop on a tree limb and look off into the distance. Nothing I can tell. Time to turn back and-

THE FUCK! A giant fire blast rockets into the storm clouds, creating more humidity as the storm starts to increase in scale. THAT wasn't natural. Better check this out and. . . what the unholy hell. . .

A giant lightning strike, dozens of times stronger than a single bolt hits the ground in the distance as a shockwave lightly pushes at my hair. Must be a war zone! Gotta check this shit out! Someone's using insane jutsu, and I want first class seats. Jutsu specialty is MY house.

(Guess who?)

This better not be interfering with my schedule. I need to complete a few more techniques before I go after Itachi. I look at my hand as it still contains the chidori used to call the lightning.

Kirin can win me the battle, I'm sure, but if I can't survive that long? Pointless. . . Kabuto's contact better arrive soon or I'll kill him when he shows. A figure walks into the crater where I stand. Finally.

"You're Kabuto's man, right?" He asked.

"I'm no one's man but myself. Give me the information I require."

"Okay! Okay. Tell Kabuto that everything is in place. We have two kids we can exploit from the Hidden Grass. Lord Orochimaru already has their Kusukage in the bag. My lord, Danzo, has his agents in place. He helped put the Kusukage with Orochimaru's team, in return, you all need to help us gain the Grass's scroll of Forbidden Jutsu." Three more ROOT ninja jump down, apparently not realizing it's Sasuke yet.

"You're Konoha ninja, right?" Sasuke asked bored. They finally see my eyes, followed by some gasps.

"You- Detain him! Danzo would be more than happy with him instead of the scroll!" They draw their swords and charge. One quick draw of my sword to parry the first as lightning charges through the blade. It shocks and knocks the man away as another lands behind me.

"Chidori Stream!" Lightning blasts around me to shock and launch all four back as they surround me. Just as they each start to weave hand signs. . .

"Fire Style: Firecracker Bomb Jutsu!" Two fireballs come down from above as both blast apart into dozens of mini fireballs, hitting where all four ROOT were at as they all retreated and regrouped. One group of two straight ahead, one group to the right. Some white haired Grass ninja landed beside me. "I don't like four on one. Not too fair. Granted, adding me to either side makes it unfair, but I've been itching for a good fight."

"Hn." a small grunt to reward the man who decided to help you. Meant this would go faster.

"Move aside, ninja. We are taking that rogue back to Konoha!" The leader yelled.

"See, I would be inclined to do so if I didn't just hear you yourself plot against my village. I'll take the rogue here over that. Sound good?" He shrugged and waved his hands during the explanation and extended his hand to me to shake as he finished.

"Hn" A grunt is my answer. I whip my hand up. "Chidori Sharp Spear!" A beam sword extends from my hand so fast, the ninja tries to both block and dodge. It spears through his and right into his right collar bone as he failed to do both. He still weaves some hand signs.

"Shadow Stitching Jutsu!" The shadows of the now shown Nara ROOT extend towards Sasuke, until the shadows are wiped out by a small fireball from up in the sky. Both he and I look up to find several more land right on him, killing him with the ambush attack. The white haired guy with me chuckles.

"Yep. That's my Fire Style: Lingering Phoenix Flower Jutsu. Holds where I put it until I call it down. Impressed?" He smiled big.

"Hmph. You talk too much." I look the next ROOT in the eye. He weaves his signs.

"Earth Style: Crushing Stone Jutsu" The jutsu hurls the earth towards us as it misses entirely.

"Chidori Senbon!" I fire dozens of lightning needles into the man before he even breaks my genjutsu. Me and my now ally turn to the last two.

"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"

"Wind Style: Wind Funnel Jutsu!"

Both ROOT release their techniques as they combine into a tsunami of flames.

"Fire Style: Dragon Fire Jutsu!" Flames engulf me as I jump in front of the attack. My 'ally' uses a jutsu to help me out.

"Wind Style: Swine Gust Jutsu!" A massive slicing wind hits from behind as my flames match the size of the opposing attack. I ram through it at lightning speed, splitting the wall of fire in two, as I close in on my target.

"Chidori!" The flames dissipate as my charged hand drills the man through the chest. The last enemy tries to charge me as I just stare at him, causing him to halt. He expected a genjutsu.

"Earth Glove Jutsu!" The white haired man cries as his rock covered fist crushes the last guy from above, smashing him into the ground. "Well, that takes care of them!"

"Don't you want to know where the rest are who are planning against your village?" I asked sarcastically. He smirks.

"I sent a wind clone ahead in the direction these guys came. He just dispelled so I know their location. These guys aren't all they're stacked up to be. Wanna come?"

"Why. . ." Do I look like I care?

"Wellllllll, you seem like the kind of guy that is easily pissed. I would imagine you'd wanna pound whoever the hell decided to fuck with ya."

Cold stare. . . . "Hn" that's as close to hell yeah and you're getting.

. . .

(With Katto)

Damn this guy is quiet! We headed out and we found the group of ninjas. About fifteen strong. None of them were patrolling or keeping watch. From the looks of it, they were given a clear solid window to do this stunt. I could tell they already had the scroll. "Great. . . think we can take them?"

He just glared ahead. He took this as some sort of challenge.

"K then. I can ruin most of them for life in one attack, but you'll need to distract them."

"Hn." He just got up and walked towards the camp. Guess that's my cue.

"Don't do anything until you feel different! You'll know when to pull out!" He disappeared into the shadows. Time for hand signs.

About a minute later, the air starts to heat up. . . at the same time a loud cry is heard in the distance. Good timing, dude! The heat starts to build as the fighting in the distance grows intense. Cries for jutsu, screams of vengeance, and countless grunts. I'm missing it! Sad face. Oh well. This will put a smile on that guy's face for sure. Finally, time to unless the fury.

"Fire Stye: Hades' Fury Jutsu!" Boom goes the dynamite! The entire area for the next 100 yards erupts from the ground in flames as screams are heard in the flames. I even let a little whistle as I look what half my chakra tank does in one move. Gotta say. Felt good, was good. The other guy lands next to me. "Oh, you got out fine."

"Forget something?" He dropped the scroll for me! I knew he cared!

"Hehe. Thanks. Anything you want to add to this?" I tilt my head towards the fire.

He holds his hands up as I see the clouds made by the flames. I look in understanding as I smile wide. He just says sarcastically. "Kirin." The giant lightning bolt from before hits the area of the flames with a vengeance. . .

. . .

We stand there overlooking the carnage. I just smile as I look at the scroll. FANTASTIC job. The man turns to walk away. "H-hey! You should stay to meet my brother! We really should thank you."

"No."

"Well, at least say your name." I get serious. He stops.

". . .It's common courtesy to give one's own name before asking for someone else's."

I smile at him. "Katto(Kah. Toh). Katto Kisaragi."

He walks off. "HEY! What about yours?!"

He gives his stupid "hn." again before disappearing. Then I hear in the distance "Sasuke Uchiha."

Hmmm. . . Me and my brother have competition.


	7. The Demon and The Hunter!

The door opens and. . . empty? What the heck? I walk through the room searching for him. Nothing. Great. . . that's never a good sign- Oh, a note. Hmm, let's see.

_Hey Kid,_

_Out to the town for supplies and getting some notes for the new novel. My sources say some unwanted people are up in the mountain by the town. Help the people out while I work on more important things. _

_Signed, your amazing master. . ._

RESEARCH MY BUTT! "PERVY SAGE, I'LL KILL HIM!" Ugh Guess I should take those jerks up the mountain out first. Then I can beat his ASS!

(The Demon and The Hunter)

Lets see. Should I? No, it would be degrading. Then again, very satisfying. I've been standing outside this bar named 'Makka's Ladies' for about ten minutes. See, if I were Katto, I would simply transform and walk in there as an adult, flirt with the women, and use that as a boast over who would get more women. Thing is, I'm not. I'm thinking I'll take this as a challenge. Sneak in with no tricks, get a good show, and boast about being able to get in and get a good show. That is until. . .

"YOU PERVERT!" A white haired old man gets launched out of the bar as he dodges several thrown knives from some angry looking women.

"LADIES! PLEASE! You GOTTA understand. A man like me has been so lonely in the years. It's so hard to find good companionship. Ain't it right, kid?" Why did he turn to me when he said that?

A woman walks forward with her eye twitching and pulling a knife out. "No wonder it's so hard for you. Both you AND your kid there can get the hell out of here!"

Um, spit take? "Whoe- Who- Wa-wait when did I become part of-" The old man cut me off patting my shoulder.

"It's too late, kid. These women don't understand us." I whip around at him.

"DON'T TALK LIKE TO KNOW ME!" I turn back to the growing crowd. "Do I look related to him?"

"Tch. You lying pervert. You both have white hair."

Eh?! "Eh?" Was all I got out before several bar bouncers came out brandishing swords for themselves as they tried to intimidate me.

"Now, get out of here. The old man was smart enough to leave." What?

I looked back to the old man, finding an empty space and a note that was slapped to my shoulder.

_Sorry kid. Bad timing for ya'. Care to take the heat for me on this one?_

THAT OLD ASS MOTHER FUCKER! The two bouncers seemed more than pissed and drew their swords to attack me. . .

15 minutes later.

SMACK! The old man rubbed his head outside a bathhouse. He turned to see me, with the staff I used to smash the back of his head in. "What did an innocent elder like myself do to deserve this?" He was so over dramatic. He saw my dead pan face. "What? I said sorry in the note."

"How about I keep you here until my sensei arrives. You moved way too fast for a civilian." I spat at him.

"Oh? It's been a LONG time since a grass ninja team has been in charge of this area." I seemed surprised. My face only made him laugh. "This town always switches hands because its on the borders, but the Grass rarely takes charge. They must be getting ambitious."

"Um. . . thanks?" I didn't really have much of a response to that.

"It's a compliment. We need more nations taking the stage these days. The five great villages grow stuck up and overconfident without competition rising every so often. What's your name?"

"You first." I told him seriously.

He leaped to his feet as the sound of firecrackers sounded as he balanced on one foot bouncing to the side, hand outstretched forward. "I am the hope of the great world. I am man of a million women. The man of a million tricks and more. . . I AM THE GREAT TOAD SAGE JIRAIYA!" He slammed his other foot down and rolled his head around dramatically before solidifying his pose. . . .

". . . That was awful." He face vaulted into the ground. He got up with a grunt and some mumbles before asking the same from me.

"Shinzo Kisaragi. Ninja of the Hidden Grass Village Kusagakure." He eyed me for a bit. Looking over my characteristics. The spiky snow colored hair that came down over my eyes, which were golden colored. I had my black sleeveless shirt, black pants with pockets on the sides, a white vest with pockets lining the front and back for scroll storage, and two black sashes hanging from the front of the belt with storage seals lined all over them. I sealed the staff I had into one of the sash seals. **(Shinzo's voice is more like Kenshin from, well, Kenshin. I forgot Katto's, which I would fine close to adult Gohan from DBZ) **

"Good! Now, can I ask you a favor?" Really? He's gonna ask me to do something for him after he FRAMED me? "My idiot apprentice was assigned a task to take care of some guys up the mountain." He pointed to the mountain directly beside the village. "Since it's your job to do that, you might want to at least check it out. Bye." He turned to a puff of smoke. SHADOW CLONE! Great. . . Now, I got something else to do today. . .

. . .

Well, that didn't take long at all. I mean there were like, FIFTY of them and the fight didn't last a single minute. "I know shadow clones can let me outnumber you guys but you could have lasted longer. I mean come ON!" Oh, well. Maybe I really am just that good. Oh, hey! One's still conscious. "Hey, ready to tell me who's in charge?"

The guy wheezed in pain from trying to get up. "Gah! Okay! Our master had us here to steal from the different trade routes that cross here."

"I asked for a name."

"Hello, Naruto" It can't be. . . I turned around to find a familiar man with silver hair and glasses.

". . .Kabuto." I spat his name.

"Now, now. Where's the friendship? We did take the Chunin Exams together."

"SHUT UP!" I'll kill him. . . "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" The entire encampment fills with clones as I surround him.

"Well, that's about the reaction I expected." He sighed at me. "But I didn't come without thinking of a backup plan." Six other men with black jump suits landed beside him. Each one smiled crazily at me.

"And who are they?"

"They are competing for slots in the new Sound Four. They were to attack these bandits whenever we got our money from them. The two with the least amount of kills were to be killed for the winners." He smiled. "But now here's the challenge. The one who brings you down gets to kill off the two he doesn't like." All six men's skin started to flare as black marks and designs started to cover their bodies. . .

Great. Not this shit again.

. . .

An explosion sounded in the distance. Sounds like that guy's student already started a party. Better get the opener out. I take one of the many scrolls I have out as land on the tree to see the. . . . fight. Okay, what are those?

The blonde guy I could assume was Jiraiya's student was 1) Everywhere. And 2) fighting off six men with gray skin and darkened features. His clones were fending off five of them as one pumped up the size of its fore arms. He punches the ground, cracking the ground apart and knocking the blonde's footing out. The beast plows through and hits the blonde, resulting in a poof. Three clones came from under the cracks to each kick the beast in the jaw. Each clone yells a single syllable in order. "NA!" "RU!" "TO!" A final comes up with a ball of chakra hitting the creature in the throat. "Rasengan!"

The monster in launched into the sky, half its head being gone. Up above, ten more clones surround it with chakra balls in hand. "UZUMAKI RASENGAN BARRAGE!" The attacks collided, presumably killing it. The clones disappear as the real one lands. The other five rush through the other clones. One runs forward as its arm extends out and hand turns to a pointed edge.

The blonde turns to another hand sign as two clones appear in front of him. The clones jump forward, catching the extendo arm before pulling it over their shoulder, whipping the monster of a man above them. Up there, he meets with the original blonde and another clone as they both yell "ODAMA RASENGAN!" (I always liked that more than 'Big Ball Rasengan _) The attack hits and launches the thing out into the forest.

The other four round the clones and charge the blonde as he lands on the ground. Someone ring the bell, cause it's GO TIME! I unravel the scroll and unleash the power. "NINJA TOOL: MILLION KNIVES JUTSU!"

. . .

Okay, Naruto. Get your A game goin'. The four beasts charge through, before. . .

"NINJA TOOL: MILLION KNIVES JUTSU!" Three of them jump back, still getting hit by several of the kunai that rain upon the clearing. The last one stops as it raises its shield like arms to block hundreds of kunai. The kunai litter the entire battlefield, the shower stopping just before my feet. The beast opens its arms up with a wild smile. . . until. "GET BACK!" Oh, I jump the hell away.

That's when I see it. . . Every kunai's handle has a surprise plastered on it. "NINJA TOOL: SCATTERED CHERRY BOMB JUTSU!" All I see it white. Every single kunai detonates in a hell storm explosion. About half a minute later, I look up. A crater, with a small piece of gore left at the center.

Snap out of it! One of the three remaining charges towards me. It jumps in the air as I ready myself, before a white haired ninja smashes into it. The end of a tonfa helping to add pain to the elbow crashing into the beast's face. The monster hits a tree as the man lands in front of me. He seals both his tonfa into his sash. His left foot steps forward as his left hand hovers over one of his sashes. His right hand hovers over the scrolls on the right side of his chest as he glares at the beast with the extending arm from earlier as it rejoins its three allies. He smirks. "You know? This is about the time where I should say something epic. Well, I just have this." His eyes stare daggers at Kabuto. "This is your only warning. Either leave now, or die."

. . .

Alright, let's hope they leave. The silver haired guy gives me the creeps. The guy comes forward as the four beasts calm down with him around. "Well, this certainly changes things. It would be enough of a fun time with Naruto. Him with help would be a little too much. Besides, only four of them are still alive. I guess our new Sound Four team is good and ready. Let's go" They try to turn to leave, before he jolts back to dodge an uppercut from the blonde, now confirmed Naruto.

I take a side glance as the one beside me disappears. Well, he thinks things ahead well. Another bursts from under the silver haired man, kicking him in the back to send him upward. The four beasts rush Naruto as the blonde makes dozen's of clones to start combat. I took to the silver haired man. Time for another scroll. "Ninja Tool: Great White Storm Jutsu!"

As predicted, ten demon wind shuriken appear. Five attached to each arm. I flip into the air, launching five of them up to the man, and five to the four beasts attacking Naruto. The five to the man above hit target. I then look to the five that hit the next beast. It pauses as two clones punch the beast back. As it is launched back, a pair of hands rip from the ground to grab its feet. Suddenly a giant rope of Naruto unleashes itself from the ground and whips the beast into the ground far off. As the dust clears, a clone removes a kunai from its throat. The clone nods at me with a smile. We got this!

The extending arm monster unleashes its attack towards me. Time for my favorite scroll for knocking out one hit wonders. "Ninja Tool: Trifecta Threat Jutsu!" Three spinning shields connected by wire launch at the attack. The spear arm crashes into on of the shields, causing the wire connecting the shields to snap. The shield that took the hit then explodes. Those explosive kunai hidden behind it are the best. The spear limp retracts, having had half its length blown off.

The other two shields continue on, however. The beast whips its half severed limp to defend against the shield counter. The second shield detonates, eliminating the full limp, as the last crashes into the man head on, taking most of his chest out with it. The body goes limp on the ground as the gray skin changes back to regular. Two more to go.

I look over and, one to go. Naruto stands over another as only one looks at us. It tries to run, but eh, I don't like runners when they gave up that chance. Naruto's clones cut it off. It turns around before meeting my summoned sword rammed into its gut. It hands there on my sword before Naruto comes over me and knees the jaw, launching it off the blade. It hits the ground as I seal the blade away.

I turn and extend my hand. "Hi, I'm Shinzo Kisaragi. Your asshole mentor sent me this way." I said with a smile.

He laughed his ass off. "Then we both need to beat his ass. I'm Naruto Uzumaki." He looked to the body of the silver man, quickly checking it. "Fake. He probably escaped a while ago."

I frown. "His name? I can have my sensei keep an eye out."

"Kabuto Yakushi." He said angrily. "I need to find them to find my friend Sasuke. . ."

Ah, a personal story. Don't pry. "I could understand the feeling. If my brother were to disappear I'd do anything to get him. Tell your master hi, and that he needs an ass kicking bad." Naruto smirked and flashed off. I did the same.

. . .

Katto Perspective.

God, I need to get the scroll back to the village! Come on, gotta go. Gotta go. Ugh finally. I see the village in view. I take a few steps towards it before several of our ANBU land in front of me. "Hey, guys. I got this back." I smiled.

"Halt." what. . .

"By order of the Kusukage. You are now a missing nin, and must be killed on sight."

My shock couldn't be contained in simple expression. "Wha. . . What?" Then I remembered. The man that met with Sasuke had said something about the Kusukage being in someone's pocket. . . what was the name-

"OROCHIMARU! Orochimaru has the Kusukage on his side. This whole thing was a set up!"

The ninja didn't bat an eyelash. "We know." The three ANBU charge Katto.

. . .

Almost to town. I bet Katto already got back. He's gonna freak when I tell him my story.

"Look at what we have here." A wicked voice sounds. I halt.

"Who is this?!" I command.

A white skinned man walks out from the shadows, Kabuto standing right beside him.

"Kabuto. . . Is this a master?"

"I'm surprised you have never heard of me. My name is Orochimaru." Oh. . . that's not good. I get into my combat stance, trying to hide the fact that I'm already sweating. "Oh, ho! Such a fighting spirit. I know all about what you are, my boy."

"Tch. Yeah? What's that?"

He smiles wide. "My new test subject." Ten more figures come down from the trees, each one turning into more of those gray creatures from earlier. . . Fuck.

. . .

"NO!" I wake up. . . sweating. . . I sigh. What the hell? That wasn't a nightmare. I look out the window, only to see five faces of leaders that I've never known truly of until a few days ago. "Great. . ." Then I hear my mom.

"Hayato! Time to get up!"

Right. . . today I start to train. . . as a Hyuuga.


	8. Clan Pride!

"Okay, today we will beginning your training in the style of Gentle Fist." . . . . . "What"

I asked the obvious question. "Why are you two my teachers and not my mom?" I stared at Neji and Hinata.

"Well, y-you see. She's been gone for about twenty years. T-the council wanted to make sure you were taught by those that are current ninja for the village." Ugh, great.

"Fine. Let's get this on a roll. Basics?" Neji nods as he starts.

"Well, to be perfectly frank, you seem to have a lot of the advanced parts of the style down without realizing it. What was that jutsu that allowed you to match Lee's unweighted Lotus speed?"

What does that have to do with it? "Wind Style: Wind Aura Jutsu. Why?"

"I watched that jutsu. It utilizes chakra coming out of every single one of your chakra points at once, along with mixing it with Nature Manipulation. For you, that's wind. You keep a fluctuating flow that increases the power and speed for your movements, although not too much power cause that would be too much to maintain. Correct?"

Wow, he only saw it once. "Yes, that's entirely correct. My own jutsu. Point?"

He continues. "It's the exact same concept as the Hyuuga Clan Rotation technique. We put a great deal more power behind it along with putting the force into a specific motion to create a powerful defense. All you'd have to do to learn Rotation is focus more on power and use no wind chakra. That's what I mean. The entire basis of Gentle Fist is to channel chakra from the points in your body for your attacks. Most notably, your palms." Damn! Guess this stuff really is genetic.

"So. . . we're done here?" I turn to walk away.

"Karraaaaaaa. . . . CHOP!" WHACK! I face plant into the ground and look up to see my mom standing there. "The hell you're gonna just walk out on this. Now, get to work."

I couldn't respond faster. "Yes, ma'am."

. . .

That was about a month ago. (Still a couple weeks before Shippuden.) I've been making strides with the Gentle Fist training. Getting to know a lot of the Hyuuga has been fun, although this Hiashi Hyuuga guy has been out of diplomatic business for the whole time. The guy sees other villages more than his own home! In between takes for the training, I've been sparring more with Guy and Lee, mainly being forced to use my Gentle Fist alone. I haven't beaten Lee once, of course. Not like I would go that far that fast. I don't know what it is, but as a taijutsu, I can't stand it. Although, then today came.

I was in the garden practicing the attacks when my mom decided to come in. She had been getting more and more apathetic. Every time she goes to see the Hyuuga council she comes back furious. She never shows much of it though, but the fact that I can see it shows how bad it is.

I had also seen Kakashi Hatake several times. He had apparently asked to give me some training with the Sharingan portion, but that was being put off. I don't really know why.

I continued my practicing until. "You're terrible at the Gentle Fist." I whip around.

"What's wrong with it?! I thought I was improving rapidly from what everyone says!" I yelled defensively, causing my mom to chuckle.

"Why train you in something you're not built for? You're stronger than what this style would do for you already. When you train in the Gentle Fist, you train to ONLY use it. Problem is, you're already much stronger than doing that would do."

I tilted my head. "How would you know?"

"You're like me. After all, who did you think you got your Wind affinity from? You're high speed. You love to move. Out maneuver. True Hyuuga sit and wait for an opening or for an attack before they counter. You're just not built for it." She spoke the whole time in a matter of fact tone.

"So you're telling me this style is pointless?" I dead panned and sighed.

"OF COURSE NOT!" She chopped me in the head. Ouch. . . "You need to learn something from this style that you can adjust into what you already know. Be original." She walked off. "Now, I need to find Hiyori. I heard she's been pranking the village again with that team with Lord Hiruzen's grandson. I'm sure to find Hinata with her as well." That surprised me.

"Hinata with Hiyori?" I asked. Then I remembered seeing them talking a lot. Along with seeing Hiyori and Sakura chatting with that blonde girl Ino.

"Hiyori is trying to get Hinata ready for Naruto. He'll be back soon as well. Make sure to be home for dinner." Mom sped off with that.

Hmm. . .

. . .

"Hey Lee!" The over energetic teen jerked around.

"Hello, Hayato! How are you on this fine evening?"

"Fine fine. . . I wanted to spar with you again before I went to the Hyuuga clan meeting later."

"OF COURSE! SHOW ME YOUR GENTLE YOUTH!" .. . .

"Firstly, phrasing. . . secondly, say youth again and I'll stab you."

**THAT NIGHT!**

We sat in the council room. The line for us went Neji, Hinata, mom, Kasuya, Kenjuro, myself, then Hiyori. The Hyuuga elders sat opposite of us with Hanabi, Hinata's sister, as the meeting started. This was the first meeting me and Hiyori were allowed to be at. It seemed more of an unbearable absence of sound rather than uncomfortable silence.

"How has his training been going?" One elder spoke. Neji was quick to respond.

"His level is improving greatly. He has passed the standard Genin level Hyuuga in the art, which for a single month of training is unheard of. . . . However, most of the progress has started to slow as time moves on." He hesitated to say it, but it seemed to confirm what mom had said. The elder then looked to Hinata.

"How strong is his Byakugon?" This angered me. They never talked about the other half of my eyes. Almost like they ignored it.

"T-the Byakugon portion of it is as strong as any other. The only. . . drawback is that it can only see about two-thirds the distance we can. The bright side is that his ability to see everything in that distance and detail is unparalleled thanks to his Sh-"

"Understood." Another elder spoke up. Mother then spoke.

"About the request for Kakashi to train him." The elder's hadn't let a milli second go by before responding.

"We do not feel that is necessary for his growth. He is here to grow acquainted with his Hyuuga side, not an extinct clan." My eye twitched, but my mom actually flinched at that.

"And how exactly is it your decision?" Her anger started to show. Now, I was feeling it. Why were they making this decision for me?

"He is part of our clan, as such his ability to perform our clans style will decide his standing as a Main or Branch mem-" The killing intent filled the room as mom's eyes activated her Byakugon and she glared at them.

"Just say it. Say the fucking term." She spoke quietly.

"We want to know his growth with our jutsu before we determine whether we should use the Caged Bird Seal." The WHAT?!

I wasn't even able to respond before my mom. "You put that seal on him and that means full war with the Mist. I'll kill you myself."

"I see Kushina's influence over you stayed even after your disappearance." One commented. Who was that? I looked to mom again, seeing her own anger almost break her calm. "And as with all clans, clan matters do not concern any kage, regardless of village."

"Then by all means, he's still untouchable." Kasuya stated. I was surprised he would talk here. "I may not be a Hyuuga, but I do know the boy is also half Uchiha. As such, he is not technically part of either clan. If you wish to include him, you would have to include him as an Uchiha. Since no Uchiha are around, you cannot get approval for such an action." My mom actually seemed to calm down a bit at that, same as me. He might be a jackass who will try to experiment on you, but straight logic is something you can expect from him. He also added. "There's also the fact that he was never here to begin with to be considered part of either clan anyway."

That's when the elders showed their own distaste. "Uchiha. . ." They spat the name "By all means, go with that, then. We still have jurisdiction over you." They looked to my mom.

"Karra Hyuuga. You have been absent from the clan for so long, you are to be considered a Branch member at best. As such, you should have the seal, anyway." Fuck no.

Hiyori and I burst to our feet and stood between them and our mom. I flat out stated it. "You aren't touching her."

Hiyori added. "Unless you want a fight that bad."

They looked impassively. "You act out of emotion so easily. That's the Uchiha way. That's exactly why they're dead and exactly why we refuse to allow any of that taintful influence affect you."

"Is that why I'm not allowed to train with Kakashi to further my Sharingan? Same with Hiyori?" I said hatefully. They didn't answer.

"That and other reasons." A woman elder spoke.

"Like?" Kenjuro asked, speaking for the first time.

"Because of Sasuke." Neji spoke. Everyone looked at him as Neji looked depressed over defending the council's actions. "Sasuke Uchiha was one of Kakashi's three students. Kakashi fully trained Sasuke. The result was Sasuke betraying the village for power from Orochimaru. I was on the team that failed to get him back." Realization. That's the other person Sakura wants to catch up with. The same that Naruto is fighting for.

"His reason for power?" I asked.

"To kill Itachi Uchiha. The man who killed the Uchiha clan." A new voice rung out. Everyone looked at the door to find a man who commanded their respect.

"Lord Hiashi!" All the elders spoke, surprised. Hmm, so this is the great Hiashi? He's sure to be on the council side of things. . .

"I heard the whole discussion. But first." He turned towards Hinata and Hanabi. "I would like to hear about your missions as of late later. Also, I am quite proud of Hinata holding her own against the Kazekage's brother, despite the extra experience he had. Good job." Hinata sat wide eyed with a small thank you. Hanabi smiled at her sister. He then turned to Neji. "I'm also proud of your promotion. You do the clan proud." Neji bowed respectfully. Hiashi turned to Mom. "Karra. . ."

She hugged him. That was unexpected. "How are you, Hiashi?"

"I'm doing better than I used to. Are these the kids I heard about?" He looked at us appraisingly before pointing at me. "You're Hayato, correct?"

"Um, yes sir!" He grunted.

"Making you Kenjuro, and you Hiyori?" He had a ghost of a smile as they nodded, then an actual smile. "Good to finally meet some more family after missing Karra for so long."

This guy. . . is AWESOME! Scary as fuck, but cool. "Pleasure to meet you." We all said in unison.

"Now, where were you?"

"Lord Hiashi, we needed to wait for your approval for whether to place the seal on the boy. His ability with the Gentle Fist shows him as a Branch member level."

Hiashi just stared at them. "And his other skills?" He asked with curiosity. They all seemed spooked by that question.

"His skills with the our style is what we should base him on, Lord." one replied.

Hiashi grunted. "Then I'll decide on that sole. . . based on his FULL skill. He will train with me for the next week along with Karra, Hinata, and Neji. Afterward, I would like to train with Hiyori and Kenjuro, seeing as how they both have Hyuuga blood within them as well."

I just blinked at that. What is he doing?

Hiashi began to walk out of the room. "And for next week, I'll have Kakashi take over for the boy."

WHAT!? SWEET! The elders tried to respond before Hiashi just turned to give them a look. He then gestured for us to follow. This is gonna be interesting.

. . .

For the past five days, Hiashi has seemed to focus a lot on seeing what we could do overall, who we were, and everything of that sort. Hinata and Hiyori sparred twenty times. Hinata winning more often than not, but this was mainly due to the byakugon over puppet advantage that was seen in her fight with Neji. Neji trained with Kenjuro, the two evening out many times. Karra had a few spars with Hiashi herself whenever I wasn't there to train, so I never got to see who won. As for my training, Hiashi was intense! Super strong, too. As it went on, I began to focus more and more on what my mom had said.

I need to combine the Gentle Fist into what I already know. Hiashi presented me with a training location. A giant tree about five feet thick. I looked at him like 'what the hell?' "You are going to kill this tree with the Gentle Fist attacks." I only grew more confused. "See the tree is actually so thick, it takes a large amount of power and skill for the attack to harm the tree effectively. You will build your power by attacking the tree. I'll watch." He walked up to where my mom sat watching as they watched.

"Um. Okay?" I sat back as I started the hits.

**30 minutes later.**

Nothing! Not a DAMN thing! I don't even see a crack. Okay, calm down. There has to be something to this, but something just kept nagging my mind. _You're not built for it. _GAH! How am I supposed to incorporate it? It's a pure taijutsu fighting style! There isn't much of a way to get past that. WAIT! Pure taijutsu. "Wait. . ."

_It utilizes chakra coming out of every single one of your chakra points._

_The entire basis of Gentle Fist is to channel chakra from the points in your body for your attacks. Most notably, your palms._

I take a fighting stance. A standard one. Focus, HIT! The punch hits the tree. Didn't feel the right. Gotta try again. Another strike. Still not right. Again! Hmmm, that one felt almost right. Switch to a kick. A few minutes later, the experiment seems to be giving a good yield.

Hmm, I take the Gentle Fist stance. Feet apart, but not too much. Left foot forward. Right hand to the side with fingers flexed out. Left arm out with palm facing out. That's the stance.

_You're high speed. You love to move._

Hmm. I close my eyes. Two people come to my mind. The first pulls up. Lee. Always moves to attack and stay in. He overwhelms an opponent. He fights using high speed. I like his style and I've seen it a lot with my Sharingan. The next, Neji. He attacks swiftly. Accurate. Always hits where he needs to get closer to victory. Hmm. . . .

I open my eyes. SHARINGAN! I clench my right hand, but still keep it more to my side. My left foot drifts forward, further separating my feet, away from the gentle fist, and closer to the Leaf Taijutsu. I keep my left hand open palm, but I flip the hand with its palm facing towards me like Lee's forward hand for his stance. I spare a look at the crowd. Neji has his eyebrow up. Hinata looks anticipating what's coming. Hiyori and Kenjuro look confused. Hiashi has the most interested look, while my mom has a wide smile.

"Wind Aura Jutsu. . ." The air around me ripples as the wind releases from my chakra points at the same time as I prepare my limbs for this. In one instant, the tree and subsequently the ground starts to shake from dozens of strikes within seconds. Kicks, punches, elbow strikes. Each powered with chakra in the Gentle Fist form. Each hit the same as a palm strike, made even faster by the wind aura. I leap back as I look up to see the effect it had on the tree. Most of the upper limps were lowering as the tree itself was dying on the inside. I smirked. Time to try something.

I jolt into the tree with a jab, elbow, and knee into the tree. "Three Strikes!" The force of the hits pushed me away from the target enough for two kicks, three punches and an elbow. "Six Strikes!" I unleash several more flurries of attacks. "Twelve Strikes. Twenty-Four Strikes!" The hits knocking the Tree off balance as it began to fall over. I appear behind it with blinding speed. "Forty-Eight Strikes!" I attack with more as the force snaps the trunk, sending the tree upward. I appear up in the air with the tree. "LOTUS HIDDEN TRIGRAMS: 98 Strikes!" All the strikes are done in mid air as every part of the tree splits and cracks before I hit with a final punch/kick combo. (Exact same finish as Hidden Lotus.) the remains of the tree blast into the ground as I flip around to try to land, but hit the ground on my back. "Ouch. What the hell. . . "

Neji picked me up, but everyone was silent for a while. That is, until I tried to get up myself. Neji smacked me down. "NOT AFTER WHAT YOU JUST DID!"

"Why?" I hurt EVERYWHERE.

"You didn't even realize you went through two gates just now by merely copying what you've seen from Lee. You're feeling the after effects of using such a thing without ANY such training."

Well, that explains it. I guess my strike attack takes a lot to do. "Sorry. . ."

Hinata was healing me along with giving me some medicine. "It was a-amazing." She said happily.

Hiyori smacked me on the back. "FUCK! THAT HURT!" She chuckled and Kenjuro just nodded. I looked up to Hiashi. "So?"

"Hayato Hyuuga. I think you know your decision about this." I frowned. My mother, however, was BEAMING happiness.

"I do not wish you be a full part of the Hyuuga Clan. I wish to respect my heritage from both sides, which cannot happen within your clan, sir. As such, I renounce the Hyuuga name I was given in favor of the name my father gave me. Hayato Uchiha." I spoke solemnly.

Hiashi smirked. "I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm proud to call all three of you my nephew's and niece." This surprised all of us. At that point, I was about to fall until Hiashi added. "Kakashi will take over your training from here on out. Although, I do wish to hear from you from time to time. Now, Neji! Hinata!" both in question jolted. "Time to get back to your training. Need to make up for lost ground." The both sweat dropped as I, sadly, passed out. . .


	9. Hero's Return Test Time!

Oh, my back. Okay, time to get out of bed. Get u-OOOOUUuuuuuuch. That hurt. Okay, I can do this. Just walk to the door. . . left foot. ow. Right foot- ow. Just grab the door nob and turn. . . TURN DAMN IT. Okay, so after five minutes of trying to get out of my room, I make it to the kitchen/living room of the apartment. After denouncing the Hyuuga part of my name, we weren't allowed by the council to live there. Still on good terms with most of the clan, save for the glare of any of the main branch council members, but still good.

Although, this meant we had to PAY for where we stayed, and since most of our money was still in the Mist village, we needed some. Tsunade had said something about offering us missions, nothing suicidal since our safety is a concern and nothing essential to Konoha since we are from a different village. We still need to iron out a detail here and there, but that's to be done when she sees me today before Kakashi picks me up for day 1 of training. Both Hiyori and I were going to train with him, myself to further my sharingan and Hiyori to help with awakening hers. I sit on the table and look at the two across from me.

"Well, you look like hell." Tsunade smirked. Apparently this was her 'less work for me' days. My mom sat to the side with a smile.

"He discovered a new taijutsu style a few days ago. Of course his body is still shaken up a little." Hiyori was less forgiving that my mom and much worse than Tsunade in teasing.

She smacked my back in a pat on the back way with a smile. After the large yelp of pain- "Yeah, yeah. He did that, but he needs to get his lazy ass out of bed." I glare at her with fake killing intent.

"Oh, bitch. You asked for it!"

"Really?" She stretched out the word. "And what exactly would you do about it?" She started poking me in the arms and sides before switching to poking the sore spot on the back her smack left. Suddenly, my wind aura picked up and sliced her finger with a paper cut, resulting in a loud girly yelp. "You little. . ."

She tackles me as we disappear in a cloud of smoke with her obviously beating the shit out of my crippled body before we heard it. "Karraaaaaa. . . CHOP!"

SMACK! WHACK! I was on the ground holding my head in pain while Hiyori was crouched down rubbing a sore spot. Mom glared for a second before smiling wide. "Tsunade, treat my son now. In his condition my hit may have caused a concussion." Tsunade laughed her ass off before dragging me onto the couch.

"Let's see what the damage is. . ."

About thirty minutes later, I jumped off the couch and did a good feel around for anything that might still hurt. Nothing! Damn, she is a legendary healer. Why couldn't she have helped you out days ago. . .

"Anyway, we need to discuss the arrangement. Hayato, Hiyori, go to Training Ground 7 and meet with Kakashi and Sakura in twenty minutes. Sakura is to make sure he is on time. Take that Kasuya guy with you since he IS your original sensei, too." Tsunade commanded.

Fuck. . . almost got close and- wait. "What about Kenjuro?"

Mom answered that. "He left this morning to go train with Neji. Hinata is back from her mission, so you should tell her team to meet up with me. I want to meet her sensei." Karra spoke with interest on that last note.

"Okay, mom. Come on, slut!" I call to Hiyori, causing a twitch in her eye.

"Okay, bastard." She stated.

"We all are, so that's two insults against you, and one to me. Good job idiot. Oh, three against you, I win." I smiled wide at her before disappearing out the door with her chasing me in anger.

We went around for about half an hour before finding Hinata and Sakura together, just walking. "Yo, Sakura! Hinata!" I yell out.

"Hello." Sakura spoke with a bit of irritation.

"Hey, guys." Hinata seemed happy enough. Hiyori landed with us and asked to Sakura.

"What killed your mood, today?"

"Finding my sensei. . ." She seemed fuming. "The cyclops doesn't like his reading time to be interrupted."

I think that over a second. "He should start a book club."

"A book club for porn stories?" Sakura dead panned.

"Sure. I'd joi-" Then my face hit the wall. Ouch. Okay, joking about that was dangerous with Sakura around. Hopefully, everyone else knew I joked. Sakura pulled me up. "Okay, too much. Well, anyway we need to." I felt a presence in the area as I stopped. Everyone else stopped and looked at me. Since my eyes don't cause eye veins, I can look around without notice. I smirked.

"GUESS WHAT KONOHA! I'M FINALLY HOME!" Everyone whips their heads up to look onto the large pole down the street. There, they saw what I had heard of as Konoha's number one hyper active knuckle headed ninja. Sakura looked confused a moment.

"Naruto?" She called out. He looked down and responded.

"Sakura?" He landed right in front of her. "HEY!"

"How long have you been back?" She was seemed immediately perked up. I looked and saw Hinata half hiding behind a pole down the street. Hiyori saw this too as we walked over to Hinata, ignoring the conversation about Naruto's supposed height gain.

"Whatcha' doin'?" I spoke with a nasally sarcastic voice.

She jumped and slow turned, her hand behind her head. "N-nothing!" She then turned a couple shades of red.

"Really? Nothing usually doesn't involve hiding behind a pole from your crush. Go say hi." She twiddled her fingers. AH, this is where that habit came from. . .

"I c-can't. What would I say? I d-don't-" She was cut off by a scream.

"THAT JUTSU IS TOO WEAK! CHECK OUT MY NEW TOTALLY PERVERTED JUTSU!" Naruto yelled before being promptly plowed into a wall by Sakura. Ah, so that's where Sakura's habit came from. I smack my forehead as I share a look with Hiyori.

"So now, I see there are two sides to this. He's an idiot." Hiyori finished the thought.

"And you don't say anything to him." She seemed annoyed by our cousin here. I got a thought. I looked to my little sister as we both smirked back and forth between Hinata and Naruto. Hinata, in embarrassment, hides in her hood and tightens it so her face disappears. Oh, this was gonna be funny.

"HEY! NARUTO!" I yell out. The orange and black ninja looked up and seems surprised.

"Hi! I forgot you guys would be here. What's up with you?"

"Oh, just getting along with the family." Hiyori spoke up. "We were actually just walking around with Hinata." With my byakugon vision, I see Hinata blast her head out of her hood like her eyes would pop out. This might be cruel, but it needs done.

"Hinata? Where is she?" I point down the road to her.

"She's the attractive girl right there. Gee, don't you remember what I said about the Jonin exams?" I was laughing my ass off in my head. One blur and Naruto was over with Hinata.

"Is it true?" He said, not in a yelling way but truly interested.

"U-um. I. Uh" Is that shade of red healthy?

"Hayato told me all about it!" Naruto said with an excited grin. At that point her eyes went wide and watery from the shock as she looked past Naruto to me. I could swear I heard a dog like whine.

I immediately threw my hands up in a surrender fashion mouthing the words 'NOT THAT NOT THAT" over and over. She calmed a bit, still confused. I mouthed the words 'Jonin exams!'

"O-oh! Um, yeah. I failed, though." She hung her head down a little.

"Like that matters" naruto came up with a smile, she perked up. "We all failed the Chunin exams first try. Either way, I heard you were AWESOME!"

"um. . .thank you." Okay, this is going too slow.

I come up behind and wrap one arm around the back of Naruto's neck, leading him away. Hiyori took the hint and went the Hinata for a confidence boost. "Listen Naruto, I'm gonna be honest. If I'm honest with you, you should be honest with me right?" Time for some manipulation of feelings. Damn, I sound like a standard Hyuuga.

"Yeah?" He seemed confused. Right where I want him.

"Do you understand just how truly awesome she is to you?" Step one, see how much she know about her.

"Well, she's awesome. I mean that Byakugon thing is great, and she's strong as hell." Yes yes.

"But what about personally?"

"Hmm." He proceeded to tell me every time she has helped him out and how kind she was. I was a bit surprised with how much he said.

"Okay, then tell me this. Why don't you LIKE like her?" His head tilted.

"Am I able to?" Huh?

I dead pan to him. "Explain."

"Well, she's supposed to be the clan head someday, right?"

"Yeah. . ."

"I'm an orphan. I never even thought I'd be allowed to." SPIT TAKE?!

"Naruto. . ." I let some annoyance come through. "When the HELL. . . did you come up with that?"

"Well, way back when I met her, I think. Why?" He seemed so confused. I let out a sigh.

"Just. . . think about it." Jiraiya walks up and calls out.

"Okay, kids, enough with the catching up. We have to go see Tsunade." Naruto snaps out of his thoughts as he and Sakura follow. As they leave he does look back at us, but I can tell he was looking at one in particular. Step two, get him interested. Now step three, seal the deal. This requires the other to do something.

Hiyori whispers to me. "She still needs a couple pushes, but she'll get there." I smirk. I then frown as I yell out.

"Hey Sakura!" I throw a quickly written note. She reads it in the distance while I read it aloud in my head. 'Why the hell did you not help her out sooner?' She looked back up to me and mouthed 'Tried. Didn't work.'

Great. We turned to Hinata. "By the way, mom wants to see your team. Just family interested in those around ya'." She nodded slightly before mumbling something and jumping away. I believe I head 'thank you'.

"Now, to get asshole." Hiyori said. Great. . . .

. . .

"What the HELL are you doing?" We both yelled. We opened the door to Kasuya sensei's apartment, finding the place filled with caged small animals. He turned in his spinning chair with a scalpel in hand. He replied in his dead voice.

"It's been a long time since I've been exposed to the animals in this area. I was wondering if there were any animals that may have migrated here. Plus, I wanted to get a first hand reminder of them all." He straightened his glasses. "Why have you come?"

"Um, you were supposed to meet up with us at Training Ground 7." I asked cautiously.

"And?" This part we hated.

"You can't get a blood sample from us." Hiyori spoke with her own dead voice.

"then no." He turned back to the animal he was dissecting.

Ugh. I don't have time to deal with this shit. "Come with us, or I'll literally put in my will that you cannot be near my body when I die." He stopped. He simply sighed before grabbing his equipment.

"Fine, I;ll be there in a bit." We walked out the door.

About five minutes later, we arrived at the training ground. Surprisingly, Sakura had Naruto there as well. Over on the side of the training area, Tsunade, Shizune, Jiraiya, and mom were all standing and talking.

We socialized for about fifteen minutes before both silver haired sensei materialized out of nowhere, speaking at the same time.

"YO, was I late?" Kakashi.

"How late was I?" Kasuya.

"What's the excuse this time?" All four of us kids said.

Naruto and Sakura both looked at us as we looked at them. Then we looked to the two sensei.

"Sorry bout that. I was lost on the road of life." Kakashi said wistfully.

"And I was lost in the facts of life." Kasuya straightened his glasses.

OH MY GOD THEY BOTH DO THIS! One was bad enough! "What are we doing first?"

Kakashi addressed me. "Well, since technically I am teaching all of you now, I made out the plans for this exercise." He pulled out two bells. He tossed one to Kasuya sensei, who caught it. "You four must get these bells from us. . ."

Sakura face palmed while Naruto asked. "Does this mean?"

"Yes." Kasuya spoke. "The four of you must try to get these bells. Now, if Naruto or Sakura gets a bell first, Hayato and Hiyori fail. Same in vice versa."

"What's the prize?" Hiyori asked. I was curious too.

"Bragging rights." Kakashi smiled through his mask. Great. . . we'll have to fight both of them.

"Whatever. Hey Naruto?" I had my own way.

"Yeah?" Naruto answered.

"How about we work together for better bragging rights, like kicking the asses of both our sensei? We'll get the bells after that."

Naruto smiled. "Yeah. I like that. Shadow Clone Jutsu!" He summons a clone as he turns the clone into a giant shuriken. He prepares to throw as Kakashi appears behind him with a kunai around Naruto's neck.

"Just as impatient. I haven't said start yet." Then Kakashi went wide eyed as another Naruto pointed a kunai into Kakashi's back.

"Don't worry. It'll be much different than last time." Kakashi chuckles as he lifts his headband off his left eye, revealing a bright red version of my eye. This is the first time I've been able to see it!

"Okay, then. START!" Kakashi disappears in a puff of smoke. Naruto dispels his clones as we look to where Kasuya was. He was gone already. FUCK! This was gonna take a while.


	10. Test of Growth!

We stood there for a bit. We hung together in the center of the field. Hiding would be pointless. Kakashi's ruined trying to hide for us before. We need to snuff him out. Hayato, Hiyori, and Kasuya are unknowns. I don't know how strong they are but then again Sakura seems much more powerful.

"How can we find them?" I asked. "Guess I'll send clones out to search through the forest." Hiyori chuckled, cutting me off.

"Hayato?" She asked.

I looked to his white. . . Sharingan?! It had a slight glow to it, too! He just tilted his head barely caring as he pointed down. "Kakashi's there." He scanned the area. "Kasuya's. . . above."

Hiyori snapped to the center of the group, summoning a old man puppet, which launched a flamethrower blast upward as the sky lit up. Kasuya defended with a wind jutsu? Sakura jumped forward and crushed her fist into the ground. The entire area shakes as the ground breaks apart. DAMN, better not piss her off anymore.

Kakashi blasts from the ground performing hand signs. Hayato runs forward.

"Earth Style: Mud Wall!" He raises above us all on a mound of earth rising from the water.

"Wind Style: Wind Aura Jutsu!" He sped forward at speeds higher than bushy brows! Kakashi continued.

"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" The water dragon rose to attack Hayato.

"Wind Style: Wind Blade Alpha!" He sends a blade through the open air into the dragon, splitting it clean in half as he jumps through the space with a spin kick. The kick hits an empty space on the mud wall, Kakashi gone. Kakashi then rose from the rock making the mound, chidori in hand. Hayato used another jutsu. "Wind Style: Slicing Sphere!" The air around him slashed around in a sphere, severely weakening the Chidori and slowing Kakashi's advance. Hayato spins around with a roundhouse kick. Kakashi then used his chidori hand to catch the kick. The 'wind aura' canceling out the last of the lightning chakra. Kakashi throws Hayato away, while jumping off the mound and looking intensely at his hand.

Hayato lands on his feet, though an obvious flesh wound showed on his shin where the chidori caught it. He charged back at Kakashi with more hand signs. "Water Wind Combo: Slicing Torrent Jutsu!" The entirety of the small river explodes upward in a twister of water as the water separates into thousands of droplets, moving around at a speed capable of cutting through a man. Then I hear.

"Fire Style: Scorching Blasts Jutsu!" Unable to see the jutsu itself, I only see the entire twister light up. The wind heavily increases the fire damage as the fire and water cancel out, creating a giant mist over the area. A loud hit sounds as Hayato lands beside us, with a small almost unnoticeable limp. Sakura skids by him and starts healing the injury.

Hiyori halts her attack above as a giant black scythe blade with silver handle lands in front of us. Kasuya lands on the handle before swinging under in to dodge Hiyori's puppet. He twirls the scythe to parry the puppet arm up, thus redirecting the fire storm that left the puppet's hand. He then used one handed hand signs. "Fire Style: Burst palm." He speaks calmly. He connects the palm with the puppet as a condensed explosion rockets the puppet out into the forest, lost in the mist. Hiyori starts with hand signs as he does more one handed. He doesn't even name the jutsu as a mini bolt of lightning leaves his extended index and middle fingers.

"Earth Style: Rock Shield!" A small uplifted barrier comes up just as the bolt of lightning hits it, still sending power through to launch her away. He then turned to me. . .

I made three clones, just in time for one to take the first scythe hit. The other two prepare a rasengan as one takes the Rasengan to attack. The other falls back with me as we prepare another. Kasuya charges lightning chakra through his weapon, slashing it into the first Rasengan. It cancels out the attacks as he manages to hook the blade around to cut the clone before being blasted too far back. He hooks the scythe blade into the ground to halt before blasting towards me. "Odama Rasengan!"

The larger Rasengan clashes with the same lightning charged attack. This time, the scythe is blasted back as the Rasengan closes in, only for Kasuya to clash it with his open hand and grab the Rasengan! "Burst Palm!"

The clash ends with a large explosion as we separate. He lands, just as he ducks several kunai. The mist from Kakashi's earlier attack. HAH! His eyes widen when he sees the thousand clones I made. All of them launch their kunai and shuriken as Kasuya just smirks at it.

He spins his scythe in his hand with wind chakra coming from it. The wind whirls around where he spins the scythe, brushing away all the projectiles. Well, that certainly won't. . . . Plan B, attack attack attack!

All the clones charge towards him as the blade of the scythe glows red with Kasuya smiling fully like a madman. He swings the weapon down as the ground explodes, clearing a large amount of space and dispatching a dozen clones. He raises his weapon as he runs into the empty space and. . . the blade is black again. He plows through the clones with flurry after flurry with his blade switching from lightning charged to red hot, resulting in explosion after explosion.

He skids to a halt as my clones surround him. He's gone through about half of them by this point. Kasuya then smiles wider. Hiyori suddenly lands by me. She quickly explained the situation. "He fights using his scythe, Ryuk. The scythe is made for him to channel his chakra nature into it. He has three natures, lightning, fire, and wind. Each nature gives a different benefit. Lightning is what he uses for one on one fights mainly. Full attack power. Fire causes mass damage. He uses that when outnumbered. Wind lets him create gusts of wind capable out deflecting ranged attacks. Yes, by the way, he can combine them."

"Great. . . Super weapon. Why does he have that?" I asked.

"We wanted new fighters to replace the seven swordsmen of the hidden mist. Since a lot of the blades went missing, we needed new elite fighters. Kasuya is using the only currently used weapon for those fighters." She informed.

"Any tips to beat him?" I questioned.

"Outlast him. . . His fighting method is monstrous and he has a larger than average chakra pool, but he burns it up quickly. Problem is, he can still last a while, so you have to survive that long."

Another wave of clones gets destroyed by an explosion. He smiles wide as his blade begins to burn white hot. Suddenly the temperature heightens while he does a single spin while slashing. Suddenly flames scatter towards the crowds of clones around him just as several barriers appear to contain the inferno, protecting the clones. Hiyori chuckles. Kasuya stops as the flames dissipate. I look at the barriers, finding ice. I almost scream out when I say my thoughts. "Crystal Ice Mirrors?!"

Suddenly, a puppet rockets out of one of the mirrors, slashing at Kasuya. He parries it away as the puppet goes into another mirror. Slowly, the mirrors each show the puppet. White shoulder length hair. Blue colored eyes. A single arm that the entire forearm is a large block with several blades. Two wings appear on the puppet as the ice sharpens. . .

. . .

DAMN IT! This is the power of a REAL Sharingan! I already had my wind aura active to out speed him, but he could still see me coming with the Sharingan. He had more jutsu to use as he knocked away several wind blades with a fire wall jutsu. He seemed to have an answer for everything. I told Sakura to remain hidden to attack when I gave the signal. Alright, time to kick it up a notch.

I charge at him continuing with more hand signs. "Water Style: Water Wall Jutsu!"

Kakashi seems confused until the walls appear around him, containing him. We both start with the next set of attacks. "Water Style: Water Vortex Jutsu!" I smirk as the torrent of water uplifts and speeds to me.

"Water Clone Jutsu!" This is gonna cause a hit to my chakra. Just before the vortex hits, the entire mass of water stops. Kakashi pauses in surprise as the water used in the vortex turns into about thirty water clones as they all land to the side as I reach the water wall containing him. "Water Prison Jutsu!"

I spare a glance over to how Naruto is doing and. . . Hiyori's using that puppet. That one's chakra network is based off one of the members of the extinct clan with the crystal ice kekkei genkai. No time to watch them. Have to stay focuses. The water wall around Kakashi perfectly becomes a water prison around him, trapping the great Copy Ninja. We glare at each other for a moment. He chuckled when he noticed me gasping for air.

"Heheh. I've never once thought of doing something like that. Using the substance in your opponent's jutsu as the source of material for yours. Impressive. Stupid, yes, but impressive nonetheless. Only one problem." I cut him off.

"You're a shadow clone?" His eyes went wide as I back kicked behind me, the kick being caught by the real Kakashi's right arm. One of the water clones sped up behind and kicked Kakashi's right arm in the side. Kakashi, after a grunt, activates the copying power in his Sharingan.

"Leaf Hurricane!" He spun around, kicking each water clone back and defeating them. He jumps away from me as I fall to my knee. "You tried fighting me alone. That was your first mistake. Although, I'm curious as to when you were able to shut down my right arm." His right arm dangled lifelessly to the side. He tried to move it as he grunted in pain.

"Heh. No one told you about my taijutsu?" He tilted his head. "Every single attack, be it a punch, kick, knee, or any strike carries the chakra attack of a standard Gentle Fist palm hit. First, you caught my kick earlier. . ." Understanding came onto his face. "Then you just caught another kick with the same hand, and you also got kicked by one of my clones. You realized too late, blocking me is useless, and now you can't use Ninjutsu. No hand signs." I smirked as Kakashi finished his own thoughts.

"The genjutsu I used to hide my real self was specially made by me to avoid detection from the Byakugon, but you saw right through it. I assume that was your Sharingan at work, then. Now, ordinarily I would say you were right about the no jutsu thing." My eyes narrowed. "But it's part of my name. The Copy Ninja. You should know that I've SEEN one handed hand signs three times now. First was Haku, a ninja who worked for Zabuza." My eyes widened then. "Then your sensei showed me before this battle, and I saw him doing it just a while ago. . . So your theory there is not correct." Shit!

. . .

The puppet, now confirmed Hitsuguya by Hiyori, was rapidly speeding through from mirror to mirror in a hit and run tactic. As Kasuya spins his scythe around, parrying attack after attack. He then jumps into the air, avoiding several of my clones as they rip from the ground to attack. Suddenly he finds himself standing on a horizontal ice mirror, with the puppet appearing in the mirror before its blade arm flashes upward, barely missing him. Kasuya jumps up again as two clones land on the ice mirror and jump up with a rasengan in their hands, followed by a number of other clones.

Kasuya charges his scythe with lightning before the wind picks up all around him. He swings his scythe, sending a tempest of wind and lightning down as a ranged strike, hitting and dispelling all the clones and knocking the puppet into the ground. He started to charge more lightning as he fell downward to us. We jumped back as he hits the ground in front of us. He takes a look around as Hiyori sends her chakra threads out. He started to breath heavy and sweat as he brushed his forehead sweat off. (He wears his protector on his white trench coat, stitched over his heart.) He then spoke in his bored voice. "It's just us. No more clones. So, what else do you have?" He straightened his glasses as the light shined off it.

Right where we want him. "Hiyori, can you hold him off for a single minute?"

She seemed confused. "Why?"

"Just cause." I gave her my patented toothy grin. She just nodded as I jumped back.

I concentrated on what I needed to do.

. . .

I had to think fast! He was going to kick my ass if this didn't go according to plan. Sakura, I hope you're awesome! Kakashi stepped forward, just as I performed a rapid set of hand signs. I performed the final seal. (The standard chakra building seal.) Lightning sparked around my hands as I through one arm out, index and middle fingers extended to Kakashi. "Lightning Style: Zeus Strike Jutsu!" A lightning bolt fires from my two fingers to Kakashi. . . only to be sliced in half. The bolt got cut in half! THE FUCK?!

Kakashi stands in the same spot as before with his left hand sparkling with his trademark jutsu. Shit. He starts to talk again. "You can use four chakra affinities without fail?"

"Heh. Earth is actually my weakest of the four. I can't even start a fire jutsu. The order goes Wind, both Lightning and Water, and then Earth." I then perform more signs. "Wind Style: Air Bullet!" I launch a massive air wave towards the copy ninja until Kakashi's voice cut in, but not from the one in front of me.

"Water Style: Water Quake!" The river uplifts as the water blocks and redirects the wind blast. FUCK! A shadow clone of Kakashi lands before the real one. This one had full use of both arms. "This was made when the fight began, just in case. Now, you will fail due to your arrogance in facing me alone." He charges forward with his Chidori. Suddenly, I flare my Sharingan. Remember. See what he did. Copy. Now, to use.

"Wind Style: Wind Aura Jutsu!" The wind lifted me up enough for me to charge as I used the very last of my chakra. . . causing my right hand to light up with lightning. "Chidori!"

My right hand clamps onto his left as the two chidoris charge through the grip of both hands. Suddenly, though, my chidori starts to weaken as Kakashi starts to overpower me. "You can't beat me with my jutsu."

Suddenly, a hidden clone of mine rips from under the water as it rushes to Kakashi. Kakashi's clone stands between mine and Kakashi. Kakashi once again talks like he's won. "Your clone won't be nearly as strong as mine, due to your level of chakra right now." I look him in the eye just as my and his clones close in.

"Who said it was a clone?" His eyes widen as a poof sounds. He turns his head, finding his clone gone, and my 'clone' concealing in a small puff of smoke, before pink hair is seen.

"CHA!" Sakura's fist lands right on Kakashi's jaw, launching him into the river bank, causing a large amount of debris. I fall to my knees, my vision starting to black out. Suddenly, I get pulled from that darkness. I manage a look over my shoulder, since my chakra exhaustion caused my byakugon to deactivate. I see Sakura healing me and giving me chakra. "Sorry, Kakashi sensei! You always said a ninja should see through deception. You fell for that this time!" She smiled cheekily as she held up the bell that had been on Kakashi's belt.

Heh, I knew I'd never be able to win on my own. Shikamaru used this tactic a lot in Shogi. In this instance, I was the sacrificial piece.

. . .

Kasuya charged Hiyori. Her Hitsuguya puppet creates a giant ice barrier. She jumps back just as Kasuya's lightning charged scythe smashes through. . . in time to see the fire puppet Yama launching a flame attack. Kasuya spins his scythe, using the fire manipulate to block the fire attack. He twists around and pointed his fingers to the puppet. "Lightning Style: Zeus Strike Jutsu!" The lightning blasts the puppet as the Hitsuguya puppet attacks from above. He twists around to dodge it before impaling it with his weapon. He throws the puppet away and steps over the remains of Yama.

Hiyori rushes forward, releasing her chakra restraint braces on her wrist. She bursts forth at him with taijutsu. He opens his palm. "Burst Palm." The explosion of the attack happens in the open air since he does not want to kill her. It knocks her back as he speeds forth and elbows her into the ground. He stands over her until he senses a new presence. Me.

He sees me far off as red chakra flows all around me in the shape of a fox. One tail twitches behind me as he finally looks at my hand. A massive red Rasengan. After a few seconds, the tail aura around me subsides as all the chakra making up the cloak slowly molds into the Rasengan, making it bigger. A Rasengan with two tails worth of power. I smirk with my still red slit eyes showing, before I charge.

It seemed like he didn't have much to do with this situation. His scythe glows white hot as electricity charges around it along with wind picking up. He was putting all his power into this attack. All his natures, even if they didn't truly combine. It would still be a massive attack. Suddenly, we rush each other.

Only one thing could be said about his face. Complete joy. He rushed in as I noticed his bell was gone. I looked past him as Hiyori pulled it to her with chakra threads. She smiled at me and mouthed 'kick his ass. He needs it.' I nodded just before my attack met his. Boom. The entire training ground shook. The attacks clashed, but his gave out from chakra loss first. Just as my attack exploded on him. "RASENGAN!"

. . .

That was all three days ago. I was still sleeping off the aches when my mom rushed into the room. "Hey, get up. We're going to the Hokage office NOW!" great. . . .

. . .

Character switch.

"What?" The woman in the room asked. "The Kazekage was kidnapped and Team Kakashi was sent to help? Why didn't you send us with them?" She seemed more than a little annoyed. Although I did learn her name was Karra Hyuuga.

"I understand Karra, believe me." The scary Hokage spoke solemnly. "but you and your childrens' team are guests in this village. I refused to send you on missions that wouldn't mutually benefit us and the Mist. I also did not want you put in danger for our sake, so I wanted to hold off on it and see if someone else could go." Hmm, logic.

"Fine, what is the situation?" The Hyuuga asked.

"The Kazekage's brother, Kankuro is being treated by Sakura right now. After that, Kakashi will have his team locate the Kazekage. You all will be sent in that direction and be informed where to go as you close in on each other."

The young black haired girl my age spoke up. "Why isn't Kasuya sensei coming with us?"

The blonde kage rubbed her temple. "I was able to heal Kakashi after your all's victory because they were purely physical. Kasuya is still recovering from bad chakra exhaustion. I cannot ask him to take that risk, and I doubt he'd want to anyway." Yep, I'll just sit here and maybe they'll forget about me. I can't keep this charade up.

"And who is this?" The taller young man older than me spoke. FUCK!

"He is a ninja of the Sand. He will be accompanying you back." Fuck you, bitch! Gah! "Now, you will leave immediately."

The team walks over to me. The adult Hyuuga extends her hand. "I'm Karra Hyuuga. These are my children, and I'll be acting leader this mission."

I nodded. Next the elder child spoke. "I'm Kenjuro Hozuki. Jonin of the hidden Mist."

Next the girl and boy spoke. "Hiyori Uchiha." "Hayato Uchiha."

What?! Uchiha? . . . Like Sasuke. They wait for an answer from me. I wonder. . . when you wear something that you're not used to, can people who don't know you tell when you're in something new. Oh well. My jacket was now a blank bright red jacket. My blue undershirt was still there. My pants, however, were also red. My white hair was the same as before, and the stolen Sand headband was tied to my forehead. "Um. I'm Katto. Katto Kisaragi. Nice to meet you all!" I smiled, albeit nervously.

I just needed a place to regroup and hide. . . Now, this random headband has me saving the damn Kazekage. . . fun.


	11. War With a Shark Part 1

Where am I. . . . I can't tell what's going on. I can't see. Everything's dark. What happened?

I was captured. . .

"Hello, my dear Shinzo." A light turned on. My eyes hadn't adjusted yet. "How are you enjoying your stay?"

I gasp for a breath and manage two words. "Fuck you." The words might have had power if my breathing wasn't slowed. What the hell is this?

"Ah, now that isn't how this should go. I come here bearing a gift for you. Something that will make you very powerful." My eyes start to adjust. I'm strapped to a wall in the middle of a small concrete blank room. I look in front of me, seeing nothing one second. The next I see the snake bastard right in my face. "Will you accept this gift?"

Like hell I will. I glare at him with the intent to kill. I control my breathing to stop gasping. "Do whatever you want with me. I'll kill you in the end."

The snake chuckled. "That's the attitude I want. That's the attitude that will help you find your brother."  
Snap. "WHERE IS HE?! What have you done with him!"

"Me? Nothing, but the power I have will give you the power to save. Dangerous forces are after him." We just stare at one another for what felt like an hour. "Take my gift and have the power to save your brother, or keep to your honor and be used." His snake voice lightens up happily. "You choice."

"Done." Okay, I may have needed to think more, but no one threatens Katto. In an instant, the snake was gone. I couldn't follow where he went cause of my body's state.

"Enjoy this power, dear Shinzo." Suddenly, my entire body flared in searing pain centering at the back of my neck/left shoulder. I scream out. My body wretches as I try to tear free in vain. I scream for minutes on end struggling. . .

Finally, I give out.

. . .

Orochimaru has a new plaything. I watched him place the curse seal on him. In my time here, I have come to understand the entire workings of the curse seals. Mine is the Curse Seal of Heaven. Mine was made to corrupt my ways. I have since mastered it, and focused its power to help me achieve my goals. Now, I see this new curse seal. I watched through a clear wall at the man named Shinzo as he wakes up.

His curse is different than mine. His is the Curse Seal of Hell. Shinzo lifts his head up to stare through the clear wall. I guess he just now realized I was there. It was then that our eyes locked at the same level. My Sharingan flared as I looked into his eyes. . . and my sharingan glow reflected off the clear wall. From here. . . it looked like Shinzo had my own sharingan in his eyes.

"Shinzo Kisaragi." I speak dully. This man seemed powerful. He might come in handy in the future for me.

"Unless you have something to say about my brother, go to hell." We glared at each other. It still seemed to me like we both had my eyes.

"Actually, I do." He perked up with interest. "I met him around the same time you were captured. Some foolish leaf ANBU thought they could challenge me. He actually came to help. Katto was his name, right?"

Shinzo lit up. Guess Katto had a hell of a day that day too. "And? Is he okay now?"

"I have no idea, and furthermore, I do not care. I do, however, know that he is strong, just like you are. So, I'll make you a deal."

"Two deals with devils in one day. Ironic with the name of this seal on me." Shinzo dead panned.

"When the time comes. . .I wish to kill my brother. You understand brotherly bonds, and this was a case where I must avenge my family." Shinzo seemed curious to me, but I didn't ask his thoughts. "Help me achieve my goal of killing Itachi Uchiha, and I'll help you find Katto Kisaragi."

It seemed like the very same thought went through two people at once as Shinzo answered. "I'll do anything to find my brother."

**(Concept for Shinzo's Curse Seal)**

fs15/200H/f/2007/115/b/6/Enhanced_Curse_Mark_by_

. . .

'I'll do anything to find my brother. I can't go to Konoha now since I lied. That will be revealed once we get to the Sand. I can't ask the Sand since I impersonated one of their ninja. Damn. I didn't want to have to go to HIM of all people, but. . .'

"Katto? You alright?" I snapped out of it. I looked to Hayato, who had asked me.

"Y-yeah. I'm good. Just concerned on some things." The five of us were soaring through the forest at breaking speeds.

"We know you're concerned for the Kazekage, but we'll get him back." Karra stated as she led the group.

Yeah, that charade. We continued on until a ninja dog landed on a limb in front of us. We stopped as I looked at it. The fuck is a pug doing here? "Hey guys, what's up?" HOLY GOD THIS THING HAD A DEEP SMOKER'S VOICE!

"Um, are you one of Kakashi's ninja dog summons?" Kenjuro asked, eye twitching.

"Yeah. We found the Akatsuki's trail. I'll lead you there. If you wanna feel how soft my fur is, only ask." Great. . . We're being led by Hugsley the Pugsley. How could we POSSIBLY fail?

We sped off for several more hours, eventually ending up in a pure rocky waste land. Suddenly. . .

"Everyone hold up!" Both Karra and Hayato yelled as we skidded to a halt. This is gonna end badly.

. . .

Oh, no. This is gonna end badly. If I'm seeing what I think I'm seeing, this is gonna be difficult. This was only confirmed by my mom.

"Come out, Kisame Hoshigaki!" Damn. I look to Kenjuro, seeing a steely glare. Kenjuro doesn't talk much, but we all know how he feels about subjects, which is why we don't need him to talk. Didn't take a psychologist to figure out his feelings here. Kenjuro drew his long blade.

"Oh, ho! Karra Hyuuga. Been a long time since I've seen you. And look! The brat of your boyfriend. How have you been?" A large wave of water blasted into the clearing as we all jumped over the oncoming water. The wasteland now turned into a lake. I focused my power on him and. . . DAMN, HOW MUCH CHAKRA DOES HE HAVE?!

A blue fish like man landed on a rock sticking up from the water. He wore a black coat with red clouds, and had a massive sword wrapped in bandages. He smirked at us. . . he was ugly as sin. He talked at us again. "I was expecting to see Leaf ninja, but I'm glad I got you all instead. A Sand ninja as well? A good find for me." He chuckled as he seemed to ready himself.

Just as I was about to enter the battle, my mom threw her hand up to stop me and Hiyori. She then looked at Katto to pause him. "I'm fighting him." She stated. Kenjuro jumped in front of her and started walking forward.

"I will. He's mine." Before mom could intervene, Kenjuro abandoned his calm mind and charges. He flashed his hand signs. "Water Style: Water Rupture!" The center of the lake exploded upwards as water started to rain from the sky. "Water Style: Water Bullet Control!" All the droplets and large bodies of water that had yet to fall stopped until all launching themselves at Kisame, who also performed his own moves.

"Water Style: Grand Tsunami Jutsu!" The wall in front of him rose with an uproar as he jumped through to the other side of it. The massive wave blocked all the water bullets, big and small. The wave split in half when Kenjuro cut through it and came down on Kisame.

They clashed blades as Kisame at first pulled back from the momentum, then pushed in as he crushed through Kenjuro's guard. Kisame's sword ripped through Kenjuro, only for the Hozuki to reform himself and attack Kisame while open. He planned it! "DIE MONSTER!" He sliced through Kisame, only for Kisame to turn to water. Water clone. . .

"Water Style: Water Prison Jutsu!" Kisame rose from the water and trapped Kenjuro in a water prison. "Face it kid. I'm the strongest ninja swordsman. The second to me was Zabuza, and you won't be on his level for a long time."

"Maybe you shouldn't underestimate a Hozuki!" Kenjuro's body morphs into the water inside the prison as his body reforms while leaving the prison, attempting to cut down Kisame. The fish man blocks however, having expected that, as he uses his strength to toss Kenjuro away. The two face off again in sword play. Kenjuro starts parrying and avoiding hits rather than blocking, using speed to try to get a hit in.

"You got stuff, kid! I'll give you that, but you can't defeat me!" Once again, Kisame smashes through Kenjuro as Kenjuro tries to attack again. This time, Kisame ducks down under water as Kenjuro lands on the water surface, trying to look for the swordsman. "Water Style: Water Shark Bomb Jutsu!" The whole water shakes as three water sharks come from each side. Kenjuro cuts them down, only for fifteen more to come up around him. He does his hand signs fast.

"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" The dragon swirls around him as a shield as all the sharks are deflected. "Dragon beats shark."

"How about a pack?" Twenty sharks this time. "Water Shark Bomb Barrage!"

Kenjuro tries to do the same as before, but the water dragon is overwhelmed as he gets blasted back and into a rock. He tries to get up with some difficulty. Kisame rises up and tries for a finishing blow. . .

"Air Palm!" A blast of wind as powerful as Temari's slicing wind attack hits Kisame in the chest and launches him away. Mom lands in front of Kenjuro. "I told you. I'm fighting him." He tried to argue until she flared her power, keeping him in place. "Hiyori, Hayato, Katto." We all answered and landed with them. "Hiyori, You're a ranged fighter. Stay with Kenjuro and use Hitsuguya to freeze the lake. After that, use Yama to defend if Kisame comes your all's way."

"Okay." Hiyoi answered.

"Katto. I don't know what you can do. Specialty?"

"Ninjutsu" The white haired man answered.

"Next to useless against Kisame since his sword can absorb chakra and jutsu." She stated. "You and Hayato are going to back me up. Use your attacks defensive to cover me and Hayato. Hayato. You will use your attacks as offense to throw Kisame off. I'm going to take him head on."

"Yes, ma'am" Katto answered.

"Y-yes." This was the first time I would ever see my mom fight, and she was up against a monster. I wasn't too enthusiastic, but I got the feeling we weren't going to lose.


	12. War With a Shark Part 2

The entire land scape was half altered. The entire lake was frozen over with Crystal Ice.

"Water Style: Water Clone Jutsu!" Several Kisame clones appeared and crushed a large portion of the ice before going into the water below the ice. The real Kisame attacked Karra. She ducked, sidestepped, jumped, and avoided every attempt at a strike. He slashed at her as she dropped down to her hands. He drop kicked her feet forward. "Air Strike!" Two air palm hits came from her feet, blowing away Kisame's footing. While off his feet, he tried to swing at her again, but she rolls to the side while rolls to her feet, palming him in the chest and launching him down the clearing. He rolled to his feet as he wiped some blood from his lip.

"Fighting without any jutsu while fighting someone who specializes in close quarters combat is tough. Only makes it that much more interesting." He smirked. "But I need to kill you now." Suddenly, ice ruptured. "Water Style: Water Shark Shotgun Jutsu!" Sharked erupted from the ice towards Karra. She smirked at the attack without bothering to defend.

I entered in. "Earth Style: Stone Skin Jutsu!" I jumped down and smashed the first two sharks with my hardened punches. He got into a combat stance preparing the next jutsu as more sharks poured from the opening. Hayato suddenly dropped from above into the water. I announced my jutsu. "Fire Style: Delayed Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" I sent out seven fireballs into the sky. They stopped above as I used my stone skin to block another shark.

NOW! The fireballs come down one at a time, each hitting the sharks rising from the water. Suddenly, the ice ruptured again as several of Kisame's clones were launched from the water before turning to water themselves. Hayato leaped out and landed while the ice froze over. Karra charged forward to the real Kisame as he charges at her. Just as they close in. "ROTATION!" He spins in a dome of chakra, blocking Kisame's sword. The sword, however, starts to rip through as the dome starts to fade and be absorbed into the it. Suddenly, the rotation stops, using the force to knock the sword up, Kisame still managing a grip. Karra jumps out and smacks both hands to him chest. "Two Palms!"

Kisame swings his sword down before the attack can continue, separating them. "Nice try. But I can work this out." He takes some chakra from his sword as he stretches to make sure he can move alright. "Next round?"

"Air palm!" That was his only reply. She through her palms in, one, then the other, rapidly. She started launching air palms left and right, bombarding Kisame's location. The swordsman jumped out running through the battleground to dodge the hits. He jumped over a boulder, to be met by Hayato.

"Wind Blade Jutsu!" Several blades traveled through the air, hitting kisame and causing several shallow wounds. He blocked the majority of the attack, however, as he slashed at Hayato. I came down and punched his sword away from Hayato with my still activated stone skin. Hayato yelled out again. "Wind Aura!" He sped past me and kneed Kisame away. As we formed up with Karra, I looked at hand hand. My knuckles were torn a bit from the sword taking away the chakra for the stone skin.

Kisame stood against us three. He had no way to win against three Jonin level ninja. Not at once, anyway. He knew it. "Time to end this. I'm going to wipe all of you away with one attack." He chuckled and started doing his hand signs. "Water Stye: Super Shark Bomb!" Oh shit. A GIANT monster sized shark made of water soared towards us. "This jutsu can absorb chakra itself, so any defense or attack you use it useless!"

The shark began to come forward. I called out "I have something to stop it, but you need to hold it back!" I jumped back. "SUMMONING!" I slap my hand into the ground as a giant tiki pops up from the earth. I quickly start sweeping through the hand signs.

. . .

I don't know what Katto has planned, but we gotta believe in it. My mom agreed apparently. She channeled her chakra to her palms. "WIND STYLE: VACUUM PRESSURE AIR PALM!" She launches a massive wind blast at the attack. The blast connects with Kisame's shark, halting it. However, the shark grows in size as the air blast disappears into the sharks mouth. It continues on.

My turns. Time for everything I have! "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" I make four clones as each of the five of us starts our jutsu.

"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu"

"Wind Style: Wind Blade Alpha Jutsu"

"Lightning Style: Zeus Strike Jutsu"

"Earth Style: Mud Dragon Bomb Jutsu"

All four attacks hit the massive shark, completely halting it. While it was stopped, it only started to get larger. My last clone jumped right in as it started to plow through. "Wind Style: Slicing Sphere!" The sphere defensive jutsu turned offensive crashes into the shark, pushing it back, but only holding it off for a little bit. The beast was now massive as it ripped through the attacks.

Okay, that was not gonna cut it. Shit. Hopefully Katto is ready-

"EARTH STYLE: TOTEM DOOM JUTSU!"

I looked back to find the totem tiki in front of Katto as he screamed at us. "GET AWAY!" We quickly did so.

Just as we got to the sides, the totem, in the blink of an eye, absorbed half of the very landscape. Just before the giant shark was about to hit, the entire absorbed landscape blasts out from the totem, smashing into the shark. "WHAT?!" Kisame yelled as the debris blocked the full shark and smashed it away, before the attack went his way. Kisame is hit by the technique before being buried in the rubble.

We all, including Hiyori and Kenjurp, form up as Kisame rises from the rubble, beaten severely. He stumbles to attack before mom appears in front of him, grabbing him by the throat before palming his throat. This snapped his neck and destroyed all the muscle tissue around his neck. She dropped the corpse.

"I guess that's one down?" I asked.

"No. . ." Mom grabbed the face of the dead man and ripped it off, revealing someone none of us recognized. "A forbidden jutsu to allow you to place a large amount of chakra in someone, making them the same fighter as you while you control their bodies. The only downside is they won't have ALL of your strength." Kenjuro sheathed his sword and walked ahead.

"Then we should keep moving. Shouldn't we?" We nodded and walked off. So these were the type of battles we should expect from this Akatsuki. . .


	13. Stronger Than Yesterday My Ass

Almost there. We were coming up onto Team Kakashi's position. Only one thing first. "Hey mom, do we wanna fix that problem now or not?"

"Now." Was he response. Katto and Hiyori seemed confused. Kenjuro still sulked and brooded about losing to Kisame. We stopped, and I turned to Katto.

"You might wanna lose the headband Katto." The grass ninja went bug eyed like a cartoon.

"Wha- . . . huh?" Was all he got out.

"We ran into you on our way to Konoha, remember? We were the group your teammate ran into." Mom stated. "Now, we didn't care about your identity because we could tell you weren't a threat, but there's a Sand ninja with Kakashi's group. It might cause you problems if you wear that there."

Katto, meanwhile, wept anime tears while speaking in a whining voice. "My awesome disguise. . ."

"Your disguise sucked." Kenjuro said in his dead voice.

"I didn't notice." Hiyori tried to defend him as Katto removed and tossed the head band into his bag.

"Further showing your lack of skill." I said and jumped off before Hiyori could attack me.

. . .

My damn disguise. . . Did not mean a thing. Ugh. Oh well. We finally land in front of a giant fuck off sized boulder. We see the other team there. Indeed, a sand elder was there. Along with her, a silver haired cyclops, a spiky haired blond, and an aggressive looking pink haired girl. The silver haired man answered first. "Yo. Kasuya still in bed?"

"Cause I'm such a badass!" The blonde yelled out. I guess there's a story there.

"What was that? I think that was the guy who needed my little sister to help him win" Hayato added with a smirk. The blonde twitched before the pink haired girl walked to me. "Hi, I'm Sakura Haruno. Ignore those two and their cock contests."

I smile wide. "That's okay! We all can tell I'm the best anyway. Katto. Katto Kisaragi." Both the other guys scowl. That's right. I'm the one who won the fight with Kisame for us bitches! I looked to the others.

"Puppet Master Chiyo. Sand elder sibling." Hiyori perked up and skidded to her in a heart beat.

"Can you teach me?! Hiyori Uchiha. Please please please please-"

Kenjuro slaps his hand over her mouth. "Sorry. I'm Kenjuro Hozuki."

"Karra Hyuuga." My mom stated politely.

"Naruto Uzumaki."

Mom continued. "What do we have?"

Kakashi answered. "Seal tags. Judging by the design, there are four more asides from the one above the boulder. They will need to be removed simultaneously. . . I got headsets if your team wants to volunteer."

"Got it. Katto, you can stay here and take the fifth tag out for Kakashi's team. Kids, let's move!" The siblings all dashed out in separate directions upon getting their headsets.

. . .

Okay. . . next left and- THERE! "Found mine! The forest seal is ready." I found the tag placed on the side of a tree.

A calm voice came to the radio. "Found mine. The clearing seal is ready." Kenjuro.

"The river seal is covered." Mom.

"UGH! God damn it!" Hiyori. . .

"Hold on." I tell her. "BYAKUGON!" I zoomed my vision in to a stream in a field. Hiyori was searching a large rock. I smacked my forehead. ". . . Other side of the rock dumbass." She ran around the rock, finding it before she fired back.

"I'm going to kill you Hayato!"

I smirked. "You sure you could find me? I might be behind a rock."

"Enough you two!" Mom answered, cutting Hiyori off. "Kakashi, we're ready!"

"Okay. . . NOW!" I removed my tag. I waited a few seconds for a response. Finally, Kakashi rang back in. "We're in. . . the Kazekage is gone. We're about to engage."

"Right. Everyone go ba-" I feel a strange chakra signature behind me. . . the fuck. The very ground was morphing upward and forming into a humanoid being. Suddenly, it took on a different color and. . . it was me? The figure looked up with white sharingan eyes. . . . well? …...Fuck!

. . .

So these two bickering artists are Akatsuki members? Pft. The hell makes them so tou- . . . wait. I look at the blonde haired Akatsuki member. I knew him from somewhere. . .

Before I could put two and two together, Kakashi chimed in. "What?! . . . Katto."

What's he want me for? "Yeah?"

"The others are caught in a trap that was set with the seals. Go get them out of it."

"Any details?"

"Apparently the traps made exact copies of the people who removed the seal. They are currently fighting themselves. The closest is Karra. Go down river to find her first."

HAH! What did I tell you? Katto saves the day always.

. . .

I didn't even think I was this strong! In fact. . . I'm not. My fake and I land opposite each other in our gentle leaf stance. We look through the other's eyes. . . I look nice! Shit. Don't compliment the enemy, but it's me. So, don't compliment myself?

The fake charges wind around him and charges. FUCK! "Wind Aura Jutsu!" I charge wind around me as I mirror the attacker. We clash in a flurry of taijutsu. We both go to knee the other in the gut, clashing knees. I extend my leg down, kicking the fake's balancing leg out. I grab the stray arm as I pull him over and slam into the ground. He suddenly grabs my shirt, pulling me around and slamming me into the ground beside him. Then, I twist my legs around his arm, slamming his head into the ground and completing an arm bar.

I smirk, thinking I've won, until I feel a strange feeling as my body pauses. I look down. . . WHY IS A SHADOW HAND ON MY CHEST! The shadows for me and my fake form a single dark black mass and the shadow makes a hand on my chest, going towards my throat. Suddenly, I fight the ability, stopping it. Still having control of my body, I pull my leg up as I bring it down, smashing the fake's face away, blasting us apart. We both roll to our feet.

Why the hell was he able to use that?! I mean, the sharingan can copy techniques, but I've only seen that move once. It was at the Jonin Exams. It would take a massive amount of chakra for me to use that without practicing it first. That's when the cosplayer surprised me again. It performed a flurry of hand signs I knew too well, but could never use. Fire Style. . . . Dragon's Ring. One of Kasuya sensei's techniques.

He whipped his head up, blasting arcing flames into the air, into the ground, and directly at me. Suddenly, he pulls back and performs the Hyuuga air palm. The flames pick up in massive power towards me. I had to think fast. No water for water style. Wind would empower it. Lightning would pass through it harmlessly. That left the one option. "Earth Style: Mud Wall" A large wall shoots up between me and the flames. As it blocked the attack, I checked through the wall with my eyes. He was charging the other side. Time for my counter. "Earth Style: Earthen Strike!" I strike my side of the wall as large masses of rock blast out from the other side towards my target. He dodges it with ease, however, while I run out of wall to use for my combined defense/offense combo.

Suddenly, he disappeared with blinding speed. . . . yep. Dejavu. His foot crashes into my jaw, launching me into the sky. He performed the dancing leaf shadow. Using my near 360 vision, I see him rear his leg back to begin the assault for my own Heaven's Barrage. He's using techniques I'd only used or seen once. . . then I must be able to as well! My mind goes to one of my familiy members, Hiyori.

Suddenly, mine and his bodies link together. He looks down, finding puppet master chakra threads from my hands holding us together. With no room, he can't do his attack, but I can continue. I use my wind aura to start spinning us as we go down. My turn to mimic. "REVERSE PRIMARY LOTUS!" Just before impact, I loosen the threads and back kick off him as he crashes into the ground. I roll and skid to a halt. I look to the debris with a smirk, until getting even more pisses off. There was nothing but a hole. . . Headhunter jutsu. . .

He rips from the ground, this time with a chidori in hand. Okay, I BARELY did it and it took most of my remaining chakra to use that attack. How is he doing it?! I leave my question aside. "Slicing Sphere!" Using the same tactic as with Kakashi, I use the wind sphere to weaken the enemy chidori while I prepare. . . "CHIDORI!" I follow my fake's example and use the chidori, taking a hit to my chakra level. My chidori, however, is not weakened, so I quickly overpower his, but not before his glowed red. That's Kasuya sensei's signature. Burst Palm. The fire attack explodes against my chidori, launching us both apart. We land away and stare down again.

"What the hell is it with you. . ." I breath heavily as I wonder what it is. He should be dead from chakra exhaustion! There's no way I can do fire jutsu like that! I have no affinity for it, so just doing a fire jutsu once would drain most of my tank. Then the shadow jutsu. The lotus? That was another. I know I use Earth Style, but it drains me quite a bit, but he used headhunter like it was nothing! Then the big one. Chidori. I just used that too, and while lightning jutsu don't drain me much, it still took a lot out of me to use it without practice! But he isn't even breathing hard. He looks beat up, sure, but not. . . tired. . .

Oh, no. I fumble to the radio. "Guys. Are you noticing what I'm noticing?"

The response came from Kenjuro. "They aren't tiring. I'm matching him jutsu for jutsu, but I just get worn out, and he doesn't even slow."

"This is bullshit!" Hiyori. "I'm starting to slow down too! She won't even pause. What is it?"

"They aren't getting stronger." Mom cut in.

"What you mean, mom?"

"They are fighting with the same tenacity that we would at the start of any battle. They do not tire, so they can fight as intense as we start out and never falter. They still take damage from outside attacks, but they feel no exhaustion."

Kenjuro responds. "So the only way to win is to be stronger than when we pulled the seal? That seems incredibly impossibly."

Hmm, stronger than when we pulled the tags. I look down to my wrists. Then I pay more attention to the fake. . . then I smirk. "Hiyori. Kenjuro. I think we got this!"

"What?!" Hiyori yelled.

"Look at their wrists."

A full half minute passed until Hiyori answered. ". . .Ooooohhhhhh." She sounded like someone who took forever to realize something. Kenjuro responded next.

"I see."

I smile and issue a challenge. "Last to take their fake out and go help mom has to let Kasuya do an experiment on them!"

I jump towards my fake and land about fifteen feet away. I kneel down and pull up my pants legs, revealing two black braces just above both ankles. I also slip fingers under the metal braces before breaking them off. I put the broken braces into my pockets as I light up for a split second with blue. Now, that feels fuckin' better. I take a deep breath. This is something I miss easily. Then I pull my wrists up, showing the braces on them as well. I grip both braces with the opposing side's hand as I pull my hands apart, ripping both off and stuffing them into the pockets. I light up with chakra for another split second as mass amounts of chakra bursts into my system. I look up to my fake. . .

Both of us charge up our wind aura moves. We round each other as more of my stored power flared. The wind starts to center around my right arm. The wind starts to spiral around the arm uncontrollably, but stays right where I need it. The very air starts to get a change as winds around us pick up. The fake charges another burst palm attack in his own right hand. Hmph. He thinks that fire attack will be enough to match this wind one thanks to the elemental factor alone. He charges at me with the full speed of my wind aura jutsu. The wind around my full body picks up higher as I smirk. "Wind Style: Ascended Wind Aura Jutsu!" I blast out of sight in the blink of an eye. The wind around my arm further powers from my new aura, the air spiraling so strongly, it starts to hum and glow, obscuring the view of my arm. I reappear again, inside the fake's guard with my fist directly into the sternum. "Kaze kujo." (Wind Expulsion.) The channeled power in the arm releases in one massive blast. The whole clearing erupts in the chakra filled blast. . .

Once the debris clears, I find my fake half buried into a trench dug into the ground by his own body. Everything from the neck to the stomach is just gone, the arms scattered and head about fifty or sixty yards down. The rest of the body is covered with slashes and cuts from the outlying attacks the technique releases. Slowly, the body starts to turn back to raw materials before fusing with the ground again. I click the head set.

"Mine is down."

"Finishing mine now." Kenjuro answered.

"How are you two done already?!" Hiyori yelled. "I'm almost there, but I'll win."

"Well, when you show up to help Kenjuro and me save our mom we'll try not to taunt you about the whole experiment thing." I joked. I heard her fuming in anger as I chuckled.

. . .

Alright, Katto. Time to save the. . . day? The entire section of the river exploded with two massive swirls of chakra clashing. The explosion altered the river flow into a massive crater made by the river bank. It was then I saw two identical Karra Hyuugas. One was showing no distress. The other was breathing hard and seemed to be losing. Whelp. Time to save the damsel in distress! And hopefully not get my ass kicked by the jonin.


	14. The End of the First Encounter

Well, that's a thing. . . Two giant domes of spinning chakra clash against one another. One dome is pushed inward as it breaks apart. Karra Hyuga hits the ground hard, but rolls to her feet. She takes her battle stance as another Karra lands in front of her. This one, while beat up, barely breaths and seems much better set for a fight. The one I assume is the fake charges as I start the signs.

"Earth Style: Geoshot Jutsu!" A large chunk of rock rises in front of me. I throw my hand forward, sending the rock hurling towards the fake Karra. It jumps back to dodge the projectile as I land with the elder Hyuga. "Ello, miss. Am I late?" I say as cheesy as possible.

"Yes." She dead pans back at me. "These things don't tire. It's stuck at the level of power I had when I pulled the seal."

Great. I'm essentially fighting her if she was immortal. "What do I need to do?"

She immediately sighed. "I have the wind affinity, so most of my jutsu outside of Hyuga moves are ranged wind attacks. With the Hyuga moves, of course I have the Gentle Fist Style down pat. My rotation is, to my knowledge, the second strongest in the clan, to Hiashi's. I can also do the full 128 Palms. In short, don't get close." Well, that works to my advantage. I'm mainly a ranged fighter anyway. "But don't stay away either. . ." Um?

"Why?" I look over to the fake as it charges wind into its hands while it goes into a semi crouch. (Yes, Kamehameha position. . .)

Karra jumped out in front of me as the clone released the same attack that was used to hold off Kisame's final attack. Karra spun in place. Suddenly, my sight lights up with seeing her giant rotation attempt to block a massive wind blast almost glowing blue with pure chakra. The clash lasts for a few seconds before the rotation buckles and is smashed through by the attack as it ends. Karra is blasted back as the fake jumps down, landing twenty yards in front of us.

Karra got up, only to fall to her knees. "That's why. That's my wind style: vacuum pressure air palm. Takes a massive amount of chakra and combines a strong wind jutsu with the Hyuga air palm to make one massive move. It takes a lot for me to do it, but since that. . . thing can't get tired, it's been tossing it around like candy." Ah. That might explain why she looks like got her ass kicked several times over.

Hmm. Fire style would work here. . . but I don't have a fire technique strong enough other than Hades Fury, but that requires a wait time. . . I glance to Karra. She DEFINITELY would not hold her own long enough. Fire is out. Lightning is weak to wind, so that's out. Earth. . . would cancel it out at best if I could get the Totem Doom jutsu out again. That leaves one thing for me. I smirk.

"I got this. I just need to get close without getting hit." Karra tries to object, but I cut her off. "I'll fight wind with wind." I smirk. Time for my own personal favorite. . .

As if the fake knew what I was planning, it went back into the crouch position, about to release its ultimate attack once more. "Can you keep going?" I ask the downed Karra.

"I can attack, but I do not have enough chakra for another rotation. I cannot defend."

Good enough for me. "Be ready to attack." I stand facing the fake, extending my hands out to the sides, palms out. I couldn't keep the smirk from forming. A nice little chuckle builds up from me. Karra even turns to me once she notices. From each palm, a large disk of wind nature chakra spins and glows slightly greenish blue. I chuckle one more time before pulling my hands back and running towards the fake in the standard ninja run. The disks follow behind staying with my hands. The fake Karra finally releases its massive wind blast towards me. Go time!

"Wind Style: Winstructo Disk!" I throw the left disk at the attack. As the large, well small compared to the blast, disk hits the blast, I smirk. One fundamental flaw with most wind jutsu, they do not provide piercing power. Oh, they cut and slice, but they never provide the piercing power Lightning provides. This jutsu, however. . .

The disk pierces and cuts into the center of the blast. The blast itself keeps going, just cut in two. The attack would still hit Karra and me if not for the surprise. Boom! The disk explodes from inside the blade in a whirlwind of slicing wind slashes, dissipating the blast from the inside. I jump over the explosion, spinning in air before launching the right handed disk at the fake Karra.

In answer, it does its Rotation. The massive sphere of chakra clashes with the disk. The disk, however, still starts to crack through, but only a bit, before exploding. This cancels the Rotation completely, throwing the fake Karra off balance. Ordinarily, I would not be able to take advantage of such an opening due to being a ranged fighter. The fight would continue as I would try to overpower with long ranged attacks. However, I was not alone.

Karra jumps in from behind the fake and attacks. "Two palms! Four palms! Eight palms! Sixteen palms! Thirty-two palms! Sixty-four palms! One hundred twenty-eight palms!" She continued as the veins on her face for the byakugon pulsed and more veins became visible. It was scary . . . and she kept going. "Two hundred fifty-six palms!" Okay, now she's just liquidating her enemy's insides. . . "Five hundred twelve palms!" ENOUGH! It's dead! "Eight Trigrams One Thousand Twenty-Four Palms!"

MY GOD! What. . . POSSIBLE purpose would one need to go that high for? There's making sure something is dead, then there's being cruel to a corpse! The veins on her face disappear as I catch her before she hits the ground. The fake's body is completely destroyed. Suddenly, Karra perks up as she looks to the left. Confused, I look at well to find Kenjuro and Hayato land with us.

"Did we miss much?" Hayato asked. He seemed disappointed, but relieved.

"Nah, just me being awesome." I reply with a cheeky grin. Then I look like a ghost. "And your mom being scary. . ."

"She does that." Hayato replied thoughtlessly. His response? WHACK! He face plants into the ground as Karra straightens herself before chiming in politely.

"I'm here, you know?" hey eye twitches a bit as Hiyori lands with us.

"DAMN IT! I'm last. . ." Apparently, they had made a bet. I barely paid attention to their banter until Karra finally got onto her headset.

"Kakashi, we're good to go. What's the status?"

The voice that responds instead is Sakura's. "The akatsuki have been driven off. One of them was killed. The other apparently committed suicide, but we're not sure."

"Where's Kakashi?"

"He overused his Sharingan, so he's out cold. Naruto's fine. I am too. We have the Kazekage, but his demon has already been extracted. . . Chiyo didn't make it. A great amount of the Sand village ninja are here, so we're all safe and secure."

"On our way." Karra announces.

. . .

Well, overall that went well. Gaara was a nice guy. Everyone came out of it with only temporary injuries. The only loss was someone who was ready to go. . . I feel this is as close to a perfect scenario with Akatsuki as we're going to get from here on. The Sand ninja had all gone home, so now we all stood around each other. Katto seemed dead set on leaving. . .

"You sure you don't want help from us?" Sakura asked since Kakashi was out cold and hung over Kenjuro's back.

"Nah. I'm going to go to an old friend. He might be angry, but the old fence sitter will calm."

"You're going to the Tsuchikage?" I asked.

"Yeah." I turn to walk away. "I'll see you guys again, after I get stronger." He waves without turning towards us.

I smirk. "Tell Kurotsuchi I said hi." Katto stopped and turns around with surprise written on his face. "You know her, yet she didn't want to kill you? Maybe I do have competition for the best." He ended with a smile.

"You'll have to get in line behind me." Naruto called out. We all smirked as Katto dashed off.

"Now, to report back to Konoha." Karra said with a tired expression.

Finally. . . we start towards Konoha as both me and Naruto both pull out a note handed to us by Katto. It read:

_If you find any information about a Shinzo Kisaragi, send it my way. Signed. Katto Kisaragi._

. . .

I landed on an overlooking cliff. Finally, there it is. The village hidden in the stone. . .

"Been a long time, even if my stay here was temporary. . . Hope Onoki doesn't kick my ass. I need his help." I activate a storage seal from a small scroll in my pocket as a huge scroll pops out. . . the Sacred Scroll from my village. I unravel it to look at the title.

**Scroll of the Clan Hikari**

I will master this scroll and more. . . then I will find my brother and fix the Hidden Grass. That's a promise.

. . .

I have to get away! I need to! Keep running. Keep running. "GAHH!" I stumble mid run and fall to the ground as I crawl behind a tree. I clutch the base of the back of my neck. I spare a look around the corner, finding what should be a man, but probably isn't. It sniffs around for me, before charging purple chakra and leaping in the other direction. I swear, I could hear a faint voice in the back of my mind.

_Crush them. . ._

I couldn't risk a confrontation in this state. I HAD to get away from that bastard. If I had to choose between the snake and the raven haired Uchiha, I'd take the Uchiha. Thanks to him, I had an opening to get away. I tried remembering the plan. . .

Sasuke had come into the chamber I was held in. He came to me as he put a piece of paper into my pocket.

"_Tomorrow, you will have an opening to escape. Go to Konoha. Say you have information on Orochimaru. They'll jump at the chance to send someone after him. Go with them, and we will crush the snake. If we get separated while working around whoever Konoha sends, meet at the location and date on the paper. From there. . . we kill my brother and find yours before going out separate ways."_

I get up and rush in the direction I was going initially. It takes hours and hours, but finally, I find giant stone faces. . . Don't worry Katto. I'll break through all this and find you.


	15. Home of a Wanderer

Well, this was uncomfortable. I've been sitting here forever. I just arrived here two hours ago, but the entire time has been me sitting in this damn chair. I was in the Hokage office. At first, I was like 'Oh shit. This is intense.' She stared at me. . . then I was like 'She's doing mind games.' but she only stared at me. . . . now I can think one thing. TALK YOU BITCH!

"Ssssssssoooooooooooooooooo. . . come around here often?" I ask with an awkward smile. I was rewarded with a glare. "Lovely office. Nice windows, too. You can see EVERYwhere!" Another glare. Her nervous looking assistant walked in for the third time in twenty minutes.

"Lady Tsunade, Team Kakashi should be here within moments."

"Good"

". . . if you don't mind me asking. . . the fuck are we doing?" I ask hesitantly.

"Killing you if you speak up before Teams Kakashi and Kasuya are back." She spoke quietly and calmly. Yeah, probably shouldn't talk anymore. About five minutes pass before I hear the nob turn. Several people entered the room. I didn't dare look at them.

"We are reporting from our last mission, lady hokage." A familiar looking elder Hyuga spoke.

"Good. Where is Kakashi?" The copy ninja couldn't come? No celebrity meeting for me.

"Hospital. He overused the Sharingan." The pink haired girl spoke.

"Again?!" The blonde kage simmered. "Fine. I'll check him when we're done here. I swear he abuses that thing more than his porn books." Okay, I'll ignore that information. "Team Kasuya, you may go."

Four people leave the room, although a few of them spare an extra glance at me. Seemed like I've seen them before. . .

"Uh, who is this?" The pink haired girl asked.

"This is a grass ninja who came to our village, Sakura. He-" She got cut off as a familiar voice filled the room.

"SHINZO! What's up?" The spiky blonde yelled. I did a short wave with a smile.

"Yo. Chilling here and hoping not to be killed by your kage's glares." Naruto chuckled.

"Granny Tsunade does that a lot." Granny? She doesn't even look thirty! As if on cue, Sakura headlocks Naruto from behind, beating his head and choking him out. After a bit there, everyone calms as Tsunade continues.

"How do you know each other?"

"When I was out with Pervy Sage a few months ago, I ran into a snag with Kabuto and a number of curse seal guys. Shinzo here, being on a mission in the region, helped out and we kicked their asses!" Tsunade tensed up.

"Is that when you were captured?" She asked me. I nod.

"What?" Naruto seemed confused.

Before Tsunade could, I responded. "After that battle, I was ambushed on my way back to my teams. Kabuto and his master appeared with ten more of his experiments. They captured me. Apparently, I'm part of his goal. He used the incident with you to lure me away from my team further out so he could capture me. . . I came here after escaping a few days ago." I withheld the information about Sasuke, seeing as how he was former leaf, I didn't want to cause any personal issues. Not my place.

Naruto, however, seemed completely furious. "THAT BASTARD USED ME TO CAPTURE YOU?!"

"Naruto calm down!" Tsunade commanded. The blonde man tried to respond, but Sakura clamped his mouth. "Why did you come here? Why not the grass?"

I give a tired shrug. "Yours was the closest. Orochimaru is your problem anyway so you would know what to do more than the Grass would." It was half true at least. She seemed to buy it.

"Okay, Sakura, Naruto, report."

The two snapped to attention. "At least one Akatsuki member has been dispatched. Before dying he mentioned that he was supposed to meet with his own spy in Orochimaru's ranks." Sakura answered. That got my attention. They would have come either way! Me coming here was bullshit. Oh well.

"Who? Who was the member?"

"Sasori of the Red Sand. He said it was our 'reward for beating him'. The meeting is in less than a week." Sakura replied again. Naruto spoke after.

"Meaning we now have another shot at Sasuke. . ." Okay, NOW there was a story.

The silence in the room was deafening. . . Tsunade was the one who broke it. ". . .then you have your next mission." We all seemed stunned a moment. "You will need two more members for this howev-"

"ON IT!" Naruto jumped out the window. . . . smart.

"I was going to say I already had two, but I guess that'll be his surprise." She looks at me. "You're going too." Spit take? Well, that was the plan. . . but I didn't expect them to set that up right off the bat. "You have knowledge of Orochimaru's hideout. We can use that on the mission. We're willing to give you an equal part in this and then escort you back to the Grass." Sweet! I'm set to go.

. . .

"Just ask him out!" Hiyori yelled. The girl she yelled at just sat down, shaking her head back and forth. "OH COME ON!"

"Quit bothering Hinata, Hiyori." I pull my sister back by the hair. "I'll continue to work my magic with Naruto." I spoke smugly. Hiyori seemed more than a bit annoyed. Hmmm. Wonder what we can do now. "Considering Kakashi is out of commission, and with the intel Sakura got from that puppet dude, They might be going out for another mission. We need something to do. . ."

"Maybe you should check for some local rumors." A bored voice came from above us. We shudder as we turn nervously to find Kasuya standing on a roof next to us with a smile. He loves how creeped out he makes us. "I've been hearing interesting things while you all were gone."

"Like?" Hiyori asked, still shaking in fear of him a bit.

"Well, there HAVE been some stories about a wandering man taking refuge in a part of the forest north west of here."

Oh, the enjoyment. "A homeless guy in the woods. How unusual." He shrugged at my sarcasm.

"That's how most in this area are taking it, but something about the guy keeps getting rumors about him. Since you have free reign about the village and land, you should take advantage of the rumor and go sight seeing. Maybe learn something for once. Oh, and Hiyori." She cringed.

"Y-yes sensei?"

"Kenjuro told me about your all's agreement. Come by later so I can take a blood sample." I shuddered out of existence as Hiyori began to cry.

"Hmm. . . I guess I have nothing better to do. Hinata, you wanna come?" I look to the Hyuga girl. She shakes her head no.

"No. I have a mission later." Hmm. Mom's recovering from injury for tanking the Kisame fight and fighting a clone that spammed her own attacks. Kasuya JUST recovered from his own injury and would be pissed if we asked anything of him. Kenjuro hates being disturbed. Guess I'm flying solo.

"Okay. I'll check the guy out. Hiyori, you should come after bitch scythe finished with you. Oh, and Hinata. Check your Byakugon. Naruto's been interacting with everyone from your age group one team at a time. Don't be nervous if you run into him." She turned red as I walked away and added. "Don't feint!"

. . .

Let's see what the mighty leaf village has given for this important mission. I look to one side, seeing a very creepy brown haired man. Look to the other, finding a pale, half dressed boy in girly looking clothes. The pink haired banshee had already arrived. I look down the road and see Naruto walking down. He seems confused. "What's up?"

"YOU'RE LATE!" Sakura yells.

"Huh? No I'm not."

"You're twenty minutes late." Yamato states cooly.

"EH?! But I'm twenty minutes early!" We all stared at him like 'dafuq'. "Oh. . . Usually Kakashi sensei is about forty to fifty minutes late, so I changed my alarm to sleep more."

I sit for a second thinking about nothing but the fact that a jonin is allowed to be that late for EVERYTHING and yet be allowed to teach. I completely missed the next few comments, although I heard the phrase 'dickless' followed by a failed murder attempt by Naruto. This is going to be fun. . .

"Alright." Yamato states. "Naruto, Sai, Sakura, Shinzo, let's go."

. . .

Hmm. . . go down fifty three more trees, take a right. Fuck the official method. I'm using the Byakugon! I looked around for two hours until I finally detected someone in the woods, by himself. Only took a full day to get here. I land in a clearing. I pause for a second when I realize, the clearing circles around a large thicket of trees. The small patch of forest seems about the size of a town, and the one guy is in the center. I walk into it.

It takes a while of walking, but I finally come up to a small shack. A man outside it tended to a few plants and fed a few animals, consisting of deer, squirrels, and a damn bear. I look uneasy as the man turns to me, his eyes shut tight, but with a smile. His hair was messy and black. His shirt had a slightly more open collar but otherwise he was not distinguishable.

"Hello." I spoke. No response. "Your eyes. . . is something wrong?" He didn't respond. I waited patiently for about five minutes. "Who ar-" I duck to the right, barely dodging a kunai. I jump and land on a tree. The man was now standing where I was at. DAMN HE WAS FAST.

"Leave me be." Is all he said out loud. "I had a genjutsu around this entire area of forest. The only was you got past is if you had the Byakugon and saw past it, ignoring the illusion.

Well, thank god for spamming my eyes. "I didn't notice a genjutsu at all, so I guess you're half right. Who are y-" He appeared behind me with a round house kick. I turn just enough to block the kick before getting launched into another set of trees. I land, finding him gone. "What?" I duck down to the ground below, dodging the man yet again without having to face him. "What the hell?" He just disappears!

He's gone again. "That settles it! You have the Byakugon. Thus, you must be from Konoha. I cannot let you get away."

"Why?! I am not of Konoha, but why does it matter?" He appears in front of my as I throw a kick, if I can get a solid hit with my gentle leaf. . . He disappears and appears behind me, missile kicking my back, and launching me into the ground. I roll to my feet.

"I cannot let them know who I am." I smirk as I turn to water. "Water clone. . ." He mutters before teleporting out from my attack as I crash into the ground with a kick.

"What. . . IS it?" What is he doing to move like this. I see both sides of me as fire balls come from both sides. "ROTATION!" My first use in actual combat! I spin to repel both attacks. As soon as the rotation stops, however, I'm rewarded with dead weight log trap. The massive log swung down on thick ropes, swinging right at me. "Wind blade!" I use my wind slash to slice the wood in two. Not enough time to dodge. "Air palm." I use an air palm from each hand to stop one of the halves. It slows them down, but it still throws me back. I skid to a halt as I'm punched in the jaw from my left, sending me into a tree. "Ugh. I still got hit, but I almost became a char grilled Hayato sandwich." then I saw something interesting with my Byakugon's vision.

"Hilarious references aside, I cannot let you leave." He states.

"Really? Does it have to do with the Uchiha clan symbol on your back?" He seemed shocked that I saw that with how fast he was. "I know your last name, at least. I can also tell your eyes are gone. Tell me who you are. Now."

He smirks. "You said your name was Hayato? So it's Hayato Hyuga?"

"No. Byakugon is only half my power. My name is Hayato Uchiha." His face froze. He could not even form words. "I guess that makes you my half cousin. Now, your name."

He smile as his expression softened. "I still have to fight you with all I have, but. . ." He appears behind me, but I activate my wind aura and blast around. I catch his kick, but he weaves his signs firing a fireball point blank. I substitute away. He finds me immediately, then appears behind me. "I am Shisui Uchiha. Otherwise, known as Shisui the teleporter." That's when there was a single thought in my mind. . . 'I'm fucking screwed.'


	16. The Wolf Pack!

Well, thank god we got through that. Our team made it to the bridge. We were to wait for the contact, then give Yamato the signal. He'd walk in as Sasori, we'd get intel, and we'd be on our marry way. Although, since I know where the base is, we're to get the intel, then make our way to the base. Problem. . . Sasuke is there. I know it, and now it's clear about Sakura and Naruto's relationship with him. AWKWARD! Oh, well. I can't do anything about it. . . Maybe I could?

Wait! Contact. "Sai? How many?" Sakura asks. The emo simply held one finger up. That's our contact.

We gave the signal, and Yama-sori strolled up the bridge. He came into contact with the target.

"Can you hear them?" Naruto asked.

"No" I reply calmly. "Not yet." I shut my eyes and focus my chakra on one thing. Slowly, the voices come in.

"_Okay, on with the intel. I'm not a patient man, as you well know." _

"_Of course, Lord Saso-"_

"_Well, well. This is a surprise."_

OROCHIMARU! "It's Orochimaru." Is all I get out as the snake appeared on the bridge. Sakura and Naruto both panicked and got into their own conversation. I was too busy saying a few select things in my mind. Those are as follows: Fuck me. Fuck my shit. God damn it. Why god? Life is a bitch. Dear god, we are fucked.

Suddenly, Kabuto revealed himself from his robe and attacked Yamato, destroying the disguise. He gives the signal as the four of us land in front of him. Orochimaru lightens up.

"Well, isn't this ironic." He looked to Sai. "I don't know this one." Then to Yamato. "An old experiment returns home." Then to me. "And bringing a new experiment with him, might I add." I clenched my teeth as he continued to Sakura. "I remember you. You barely managed to speak last time you were in my presence, not that it wasn't understandable, but it was not a good display for you." He then looked to Naruto. Before he could speak, the blonde cut him off.

"Where's Sasuke, you bastard?" Was the aura around him turning red?

"Naruto, it HAS been a long time. It seems like you've managed to avoid Akatsuki well enough for now." Orochimaru chuckled. "I wonder. Who has grown more? You? Or Sasuke?" Okay, now there are tails made of red coming from Naruto. . . This is getting creepy.

"DON'T SPEAK OF SASUKE. . ." His voice seemed demonic at this point. A third tail appeared.

"Oh, Naruto. Some things never change. You should control that tem-" Is all Kabuto got before a roaring shock wave plows him deep into the forest as Naruto leaps in and smacks Orochimaru into the forest as well. Naruto rushes after him. Yamato starts with the orders.

"Sakura! If Naruto releases too much power, I'm going to need you here to heal him. I need to remain near to stop the Kyuubi chakra. Sai. Shinzo. You two will go on ahead to Orochimaru's base. Find Sasuke if you can. Do not engage unless it risks him getting away." We all nodded as Sai and I left on one of his birds.

. . .

"Shisui. . . Uchiha?" I said as Shisui stood behind me, nodding his head. "How are you alive? Why aren't you with the village? How long have you been here?" I just came out with my questions. He smirked, which I only say with my Byakugon.

"I'll answer those if you happen to beat me." He disappeared again. He then reappeared. . . everywhere. . . "Good luck." He spoke from seemingly everywhere are he rapidly teleported from one area to another. (Like Ichigo running around Byakuya in their fight in Bleach)

"Great. . ." I speak aloud. I pull out eight shuriken, throwing them out. "ROTATION!" Each shuriken pulls with the rotation due to wire. Each shuriken also lights with wind chakra. They rapidly spin around me, buzz sawing anything within twenty yards. The rotation ends as Shisui takes his chance. He rushes in with hand signs. I whip all eight shuriken at him.

"Fire Style: Dragon Fire Jutsu!" Flames coat around him, causing the wind around the shuriken to burn up, stopping the shuriken all together. He charges threw. SHIT!

"Lightning Style: Zeus Strike Jutsu!" I launch the lightning bolt forward, but Shisui appears above me. I barely dodge using the speed from my wind aura. Shisui's flames dissipate as he's nowhere to be found. I try to turn before a lightning fast punch nails me into a tree. He lands in front of me, but it seems like he's moving faster than before. "you're faster than before." I state clearly.

"No." Was all he said. Before I could react, he was right on top of me. We went into a rapid taijutsu match, with me on the losing end. He was definitely faster now. He was lying. Shisui leaped back, but it seemed like he was falling faster too? "Have you noticed?"

"Question?" I say as I straighten from the last few blows I took.

"Hm?" He perked up.

"How are you even able to see?" He smirked. It wasn't an unkind smirk. It was one of enthusiasm.

. . .

Sai and I landed in front of the hideout. We looked into the distance, seeing a large chakra explosion. "Damn. Naruto's NUTS!" I state. Sai looks impassively.

"We need to search the hideout, but going in without backup is not a good idea." Sai states. "If we had a way to know how many people were inside, that would help."

I close my eyes. I focus for a rather long minute. "Only one. . . The air current's going in and out suggest the breathing pattern of only one person." Sai seemed surprised.

"How can you tell?"

"Oh? Well, I can turn my ears to listen to the air currents. Essentially, I would be able to see everything through the vibrations in the air. Although, I'm not NEARLY as proficient as one of my masters. The art is called. . ."

. . .

"Echo Vision." Shisui states. He somehow noticed my look of confusion, despite his slight case of no eyes. He chuckled. "I use chakra through my ears to feel vibrations through the air. I see everything around me in all directions in almost as much detail as the Sharingan. Although, that isn't a concern for you."

"Why is that? Cocky, are we?" I speak rather boldly. He rapidly teleports near me and launches a kick, which I block. The force, however, knocks me back. His attacks have more momentum now too? "What the hell?"

He lands. "What you need to pay more attention to is seals, my friend." Seals? Seals are used for storage and containing various things, but why would that. . . . . . . . that devious bastard. I intensify the detail seen in my Byakugon's vision by using my Sharingan half. . . I SEE IT! "Oh. . . my. . ."

He smiled. "Do you see them now?"

"THERE ARE SEALS ALL OVER THIS PLACE!" I yell out. They were too small for almost anything to pick up. Near twig sized. No wonder I didn't notice. I didn't expect a full fledged master. "You use seals to teleport?" I ask.

"It's the only way TO teleport really. In the sense that I do, anyway. Even the Fourth Hokage had to do so. I gained my namesake by following his example. I used seals to outmaneuver my enemy. The difference, however, is that he was ready for battle anytime, any day. My seals required pre set up. He gained the Yellow Flash title due to the Flash and greater speed of his technique. His was also more practical since it had the use of his specialized kunai. I make due, however. That is how I got the name, Shisui the Telaporter."

"Then how are you getting faster?" I ask. I charges and engage him in taijutsu, until he palms my gut, sending me back.

"I'm not getting faster. You're getting slower." He stated cooly. I made another check. Several of the seals in this isolated forest were glowing. . . I then looked to my enemy, who had one of the same types of seals on his very body. Oh, fuck.

"The seals are slowing me down, but you have a seal to negate it, so you stay the same!"

He smiles. This guy was INSANE strong. "Any living thing that enters here starts slowing immediately upon entering. You were slowing down since you asked who I was." Well, damn. This guy was thorough.

"So whatever enters here will be at their base speed until they start slowing?" I ask. Shisui goes to a dead face. Good. I bite my thumb. . .

. . .

"Sai, go ahead and help the others. I'll make sure nothing leaves here." He nods and leaves. I look to the entrance. "Hmmmm. I wonder what Sasuke's doing." Suddenly, something attacks from above. I jump back barely in time for the giant snake to miss. I look around to find a massive snake, head as big as a station wagon. It rips from the ground and stares at me before hissing.

"Hm. I don't like your tone." I spoke out. "Time to put a hit out on ya'." I bite my thumb. I couldn't help but think someone else was using this at the same time as me.

. . .

"SUMMONING JUTSU!" Shisui jumped back, trying to tell what the summoning was through the smoke. I smiled as I heard the eager voice.

"What is your command, Delta?" I smirked at my pack code name. I looked to my summon. I large horse sized brown wolf with yellow eyes. It bore guards on the legs and a collar bearing the code name 'Zeta'. She was names Rem.

I spoke as rapidly as I could. "Seals are slowing my movements and yours now by the second, Rem. Need out of the small forest. Now." He seemed dumbfounded a moment before nodding.

"I can tell you're slower. You talk like a sloth. Here!" She was the fastest member of the Wolf Pack. Being the primary scout and runner, she never got much action. She usually is okay with that. All she cares for is one thing, how fast can she accomplish her goal. She pulls me on her back as she digs her paws into the ground. Fuck, I forgot how fast she can be.

We rocket through the trees at high speeds. It seems like lightspeed to me as my own body still slows down. I heard the rapid cry of jutsu. The voices going too fast for me to comprehend now. Rem jerks to her right, then left. She starts rapidly dodging rocks, fireballs, projectiles, and more. She gets cut off as she takes a detour. This goes on for a few moments until I realize how close we are to the clearing. . .

Rem gets hit back by an earth jutsu as she proceeds to dodge more. Shit, gonna need more. "Jump when I use the jutsu." She nods, seemingly beyond super speed to me, though I realize my speech to her must seem super slowed. I used more signs. "Summoning Jutsu!" I use again. Rem jumps over the new summoning, using it as a platform to jump above the trees and attacks, getting out into the clearing as everything returns to normal speeds for me.

"Whew! Damn good job Rem!" I look into the forest as a new wolf jumps out with us. This one is about as large as a liger or polar bear. It's jet black with crystal blue eyes. It had the same guards on the legs, these ones colored silver gray. The collar on this one read out 'Beta'. "Yo, Ven." I greet him. I was greeted with a claw swipe on the back that launched me off of Rem. "OW! What was that for?!"

His voice was deep but calm like Jack cisco from Zoids. He showed a slight irritation here. "That was for using me as a platform, Hayato!" He was one of the only ones who referred to me as my real name. He did it as a show of his own respect, where as the others used Delta as my name out of pack respect.

Shisui lands in front of us in the clearing. "So you got some dog summons. Big deal." He said, disrespecting them. All three of us growled at him.

"Don't ever insult them. The pack always sticks together." I spat at him.

"And don't compare us to those knock offs that Konoha uses." Rem snarled. "WIND STYLE: AIR BULLET!" The horse sized wolf launches three cannon ball sized air bullets. Shisui dodges around them, avoiding injury. He barely reacts as Rem bears down on him. He rolls backward, hitting his feet into her gut and launching her over and past him. He rolls to his feet as he jumps into the air, dodging the massive black wolf.

"Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu!" He blasts the wolf out of existence. He then cries out. "Shadow Clone?" Ven appears behind him and swipes Shisui down to the ground. He lands, albeit with a claw wound on his back. He jumps back avoiding Ven as two more jet black wolf figures jet around him, chasing down Shisui.

These were Ven's Darkness Clones. They were perfect shadow images of himself with no color. Nothing but black, except the eyes glowed blue, no whites. The real Ven has the silver guards, collar, and regular wolf eyes that are blue. I smirked as Shisui jumped away. Only to be backed into a tree. Ven jumped up into the air, revealing me with flashing lit up wind around my arm.

"KAZEKUJO!" I smash my fist in. . . and hit the tree, missing on purpose as Shusui stands there. Half the trees within fifty yards behind him are destroyed. Both my wolves land with me next to him. "I win." I declare. "Now, I want answers."

. . .

I stood over the dead snake. I looked over to one of my best friends. "Thanks, Hiko."

"No problem, joey." I hate that nickname. His name was Hiko, a kangaroo.

He is at least nine feet tall, has an eyepatch across his left eye, steel gauntlets on his arms, armor on his legs, a long nodachi blade strapped across his back, and scars running across his stomach. You had forgotten how much of a beast the seventh leading general of the Mob really was...

"Don't hesitate to call me again, joey." He calls before poofing away. That name is given to all baby kangaroo and those who most of the Mob don't consider top guns. I let out a sigh. Oh well. I look around.

"YO SASUKE! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?" I yell out.

"Try behind you." A calm voice states. I turn around, finding the man in question sitting patiently on a rock formation. "So, as soon as Orochimaru returns. . . we should take him out." He states. I nod.

"Well, that isn't very nice, Sasuke." A slightly turned on sounding voice announced. Both Sasuke and I look to find the snake right there, still gasping for air after his fight with Naruto. "But I suppose it's about time for plans to be in the open, considering your replacement is right there."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. I scoffed. "Hah! Like I'd be up for that. Me and Sasuke will whoop your ass!"

"Oh, but my dear Shinzo. . . I still haven't truly activated your mark." He held up one hand and gave one snap of his fingers. . . And I blacked out.


	17. The Beast Appears!

What? What is this?! I stood atop a sky scraper sized stone pillar, staring to the East. I heard someone call out something, but I didn't pay attention. I was entranced by the feeling. Someone big was going down.

"KATTO!" I snap from it and look gingerly to my co-teacher.

"Sorry, Kurotsuchi. What was it?"

She scoffed. "You've been staring into space for a full minute! Don't get sloppy, or I could get gran- I mean Lord Tsuchikage." The old man in question pops down from behind her.

"It's quite alright. I understand his lack of attention, here." I was surprised.

"You can feel it too?" I ask.

"No, boy. I can just tell that you do." He said. "I let you stay here to train, but I can tell that you are disturbed. What is it, boy?" I look back to the direction of the feeling.

"I don't know. I only know is has to do with my brother. . ." I say solemnly.

. . .

"Naruto?" I hear vaguely. I barely pay attention. I'm only focused on the feeling. It's very close. Why couldn't anyone else tell? I need to go there, but. . . "NARUTO?!" Sakura bonks me on the head. I don't even flinch. I stare in the direction still.

"Naruto, what is it?" Yamato asked.

". . . It feels. . . weird. Like I'm sensing the fox's chakra almost. Everyone only looked more confused.

. . .

"You wanted answers?" Shisui spoke. I still held my punch beside his head. I looked to my left.

"Do you feel that?" I ask without turning back to him.

"No." He said hesitantly. "Care to describe it?"

"No. . . it's just- I can't even describe it."

. . .

What. . . the hell. . . is that? I grounded my legs to hold my ground, held one hand on my sword handle, and held my off hand to block the wind and dust. I look to what used to be Shinzo. . . now, it's the form for the Curse Seal of Hell.

Shinzo's skin turns a grayish black, darker than any curse seal state seen so far. His finger nails sharpen into claws as his bones crack and pop to loosen up. His snow white hair turns a darkened silver. Two bone wings with thin membranes connecting it enough to make for use rip from his back. The bones themselves are black, jet black. The beast digs its foot into the ground to kick start itself towards me as my second curse seal state activates without my permission. . .

. . .

What? Where am I?

_Shouldn't you know that already, partner?_

THE HELL?! Who ARE you? This isn't the first time I've heard you.

_Rather than tell you, I'll show you._

The next image shown to me is Sasuke standing before me. My vision zooms outward, showing from where I was seeing. I was no longer there. What was there, was a beast. It smirked and cackled into the sky as it charged a purple, almost black chakra. This was much different than the regular curse seal form you saw others use.

What the hell is that?

_It's me. Your. . . better half. Sit and enjoy. Once I kill the boy, I'll kill the snake, and our goals can be met._

What? No. Do. Not. Kill. Sasuke. He won't be that easy, Naruto and Sakura want him to return to them, and I'm damn well sure this is MY body. You have no say here.

I channel as much concentration, but I couldn't help it. The fight had begun. . .

I, erm, I mean it, charges Sasuke as Sasuke's curse seal takes its true form. He forms a lightning attack yelling out. "CHIDORI!" His attack hit the ground, forcing me, I mean it, back. The beast then crushed its arms into the ground, cracking the area and knocking Sasuke off balance. It speeds forward, but Sasuke's wings/back hands come down and catch it. He skids to a halt, holding it down, but it uses its own wings to knock Sasuke's off. "Chidori Stream!" lightning charges around Sasuke, stunning to monster me. He spins in place and round house kicks it back before leaping away for cover.

He almost gets there, but the beast comes back and spears him through a rock formation, but not before he calls out. "Fire Style: Dragon Fire Jutsu!" The bundle of bodies erupts with flames in an indescribable mess of flaming punches and kicks. The flames explode outward as Sasuke is launched out into a rock, getting planted into it. The beast lands in front of him, but Sasuke simply looks up unimpressed. He grunts loudly as lightning blasts from him, knocking the beast back slightly and releasing him from the rock.

Two more Chidori appear, one on each hand. Sasuke speaks. "I think I'll take a page from an old. . . acquaintance of mine." The beast tries to punch him, but Sasuke catches the fist with his left Chidori. The beast shrieks as Sasuke blasts his right Chidori into its chest as the two surge into the sky in a serpentine pattern until Sasuke lets go, rising above the beast. The Chidori in each hand turns black. "DOUBLE LIGHTNING QUAKE!"

_The fool. . . _

The beast whips around in a ball of pure black chakra as the power clashes with the black lightning attack midair. From the explosion, the two bodies plow into the ground. From the debris, the beast stood over Sasuke. Sasuke was imprinted into the ground, eyes covered by his hair.

Come on, Sasuke. . .

Sasuke's hand shoots up. He smirks. The beast looks up hearing multiple Sasuke shouts. Shadow clones. "Fire Style: Great Dragon Fire Jutsu!" Giant dragon head's made of fire launch into the sky from multiple locations. The shadow clones dispel as the heat in the area causes heat lightning to form above. He calls out as the beast is distracted looking up. "Kirin!"

Okay, don't kill us both Sasuke!

_He won't._

I don't like how assured the voice was. It was like an ecstatic voice(like hollow Ichigo's). The beast roared upward as two chakras molded together at the wings. The wings pointed themselves upward. One wing has white chakra. One has black. The chakra come together in a giant black blast, clashing with the giant lightning bolt above. The sides struggle, until the entire area erupts in a blinding light.

What happened? Where is it?

The light clears as it seems the attacks canceled each other out. Sasuke already rose from the rocks and stared at the beast, while kneeling down. The beast twists around and tries to attack him, but stops when its hand is only inches from Sasuke's heart. Sasuke, however, looks un-phased, almost a look of understanding. The coloration of the creature starts to lighten then darken over and over. The voice in my head then went maniacal.

_NOO! NOOOOOO! I AM THE STRONGEST! NO ONE COMMANDS ME! NO OOOONE! _

The power it held over me lightens as I push back with everything I have.

. . .

The beast stood over me for a full moment, going through some alteration. I hope I was correct. Suddenly, The hardened skin and bone wings shatter off it and fall to pieces as the original Shinzo falls over on the ground, unconscious.

I shakily get up as I look up to find Orochimaru, staring at us amused. "Well, well. My Sasuke still has a great deal of worth. I can't say I'm displeased in the growth Shinzo has shown, however. Hm, the choice is so hard. Who to take?"

I instantly appeared behind him with a chidori in his back and coming out his chest. He smirked and chuckled. "I don't belong to you. I used you for power. Now? I have it. Try to come after me, and you'll die." The Orochimaru there choked and fell over while I checked the body. Not the real one. I looked down to Shinzo.

The snakes voice rings from the distance. "Enjoy your freedom, but know this. You always belong to me as long as that mark is on your back. . . Same with him." I look to Shinzo a while longer.

"Than we'll both kill you." I jump down to Shinzo and pull his arm around me. I needed to get us away before Naruto showed. . .

. . .

The feeling's gone. . . I turn my head back to Shisui. "It's gone. Now, what are you doing here?"

"Hiding." He states to my face.

"From?"

"The ninja world." the blind man was somehow able to tell my expression. "You obviously know my back story. My eyes were the strongest ever seen in the world of genjutsu. Something that was highly coveted. If I were to become known to the world, everyone and everything would hunt me down to track the location of both my eyes." I catch the wording.

"The eyes aren't together? Also, how come you left the village to begin with?" He tilted his head.

"My friend. . . my best friend in the world. He needed to believe he killed me. He needed certain actions to be done, and I could not protect my eyes anymore." There was more, but I didn't push it.

"Your clan died after you disappeared. Your family." He tilted his head down.

"I know. . . Including myself, I believe only four Uchiha remain."

"Six." I correct. He seems surprised. Then he remembers my name. I keep going though. "You, Sasuke Uchiha, Itachi Uchiha, myself, and my sister Hiyori Uchiha who is on her way. Who is the sixth?"

He didn't answer. He then began questions to me. "How did you survive the massacre?"

"I didn't my family grew up in the Mist Village. Our father, however, was from the Leaf. . . your father." Shisui stopped breathing. He stopped all action. His mouth opened several times to say something, but nothing came out. I decided to playful route was best as with Hiyori and Kenjuro. "So, nice to meet ya' big bro!"

He didn't speak, but I noticed a change in him. He smiled at me. "We obviously need to exchange back grounds. But did you not come out here for something else?"

I shrugged. "I came cause I was bored. Honestly, I can't tell what I can do to become stronger. I'm already a jonin. I'm a master of wind and lightning jutsu. I have my eyes, but I want to take everything further. I just don't know how. I was hoping this venture would inspire me."

He looked curious. "Did it?"

"Yeah. . . I want you to teach me about seals. . . and space/time jutsu."


	18. Moving to the Next Event

Well, I assumed this would be flashier than this. It's been three days since I met Shisui, and we had begun training immediately. Hiyori came and we exchanged the news. Apparently, the two tailed jinchuuriki for the Cloud Village had been captured by Akatsuki.

"Hey, Shisui. Is this correct?" I asked looking at the seal I made on the scroll.

Hey ran his hand on it, feeling the shape of the seal and sensing the chakra put into it. "A basic space seal. You can use it for storage space. Weapons, food, anything can go into it."

"Like chakra?" I asked curiously. He felt again to appraise it.

"Hm. no. You'd need a much higher level seal, but from this, you could just add a few modifications. That would make it able to store chakra to be used at a later point." He knelt down and started to apply the modifications himself while letting me judge and learn using my eyes. Within twenty minutes, I had then mastered all manner of storage seals. To test it, I sealed a hole tree, then sealed a full 90% of my chakra. Then, upon releasing the jutsu, the tree was blasted out at lethal speed and wiped out another tree.

Shisui whistled. "Looks like you've discovered the secret behind creating the attacks for ninja tool users." I seemed satisfied with that. It wasn't something I planned on using, having a feeling someone else had that gimmick.

"Okay, so in just these past few days I've managed to learn a great deal about stagnant seals. How powerful can I make them?"

Shisui looked like he was in deep thought. "Very, but nothing in the A-rank or S-rank fields. That's the upper level seals." I jumped up.

"Then let's get this shit!"

. . .

ohhhh, my head. Where am I? I wake up in a cave. I look around until I find a familiar figure standing by the cave entrance. "Sup, Sasuke. How long have I been out?"

"Three days. I actually already got one of our tag-a-longs already." I groaned as I looked to the white haired, purple eyed man beside me with a giant cleaver like sword on his back.

"From what I heard, you went through the shit. Name's Suigetsu Hozuki." He stated with a shark tooth grin.

"Oh. Shinzo Kisaragi." I groan out as I sit up. "What happened?"

Sasuke just turned to me. "We need to move. Orochimaru won't overlook us escaping him, nor Suigetsu's freedom."

The swordsman grunted as he grabbed my arm, pulling me up. "You heard the guy."

"Ugh. Now, I'm taking orders from him." I say to myself.

. . .

Alright. The next pick up is here. Shinzo, Suigetsu, and myself had traveled a good day or so before reaching the next base. We reached the entrance to the base, coming to meet two guards.

"Halt, Sasuke Uchiha! We have been ordered to-" Suigetsu nailed the left guard to the wall with his sword. I pinned the one to the right with my sword through his throat.

"Clear." Shinzo calls to us as we jump away. He launches paper bombs into the entrance as we walk through the front door.

"INTRUDERS!" we heard as dozens of guards rushed out, some of which went into curse seal level one states. Suigetsu takes his stance with Zabuza's blade. I hold my sword out, holding it the reverse. Shinzo holds a bladed tonfa in his left arm for defense/offense and a sword in the other. We charged the guards.

Fifteen minutes later, all the guards lie dead on the floor. We walk over the bodies towards the private rooms. "She'll be in this one here." I open the door, just to slam it shut to block three kunai. Then I kick it open, catching an arm as the assailant held a kunai. She stopped a moment before jumping away in shock.

"SASUKE! I'm so sorry. If I had known it was you who came for me, I would have jumped into the fray and-" She cut off as she saw Suigetsu. She soured. "You brought him. . ."

Suigetsu just gave a cheeky grin. "Aww, are you sad that you can't ogle Sasuke now?" She punched him in the face as he burst into water before reforming with a laugh. She steamed until she turned to our last member.

"Sh. . . SHINZO?!"

. . .

"KARIN?!" I finally choked out after seeing her attack Sasuke and Suigetsu. "I haven't seen you in years. We all thought you were dead!" I didn't know just how happy this made me. Karin had grown up in the Grass before disappearing. Katto and I had endless arguments over which of us she liked more.

"Shinzo. . . I'm sorry. I've been with Orochimaru this whole time. Though mostly not my choice." She said sadly. Then she became strictly business with a serious face. "Well, what have you all come here for?"

Sasuke, who actually had a surprised face, started. "We're going after my brother, Itachi. We're going after one more person for several reasons. Then, we find and kill Itachi. After that, leadership of the group turns to Shinzo. We'll help him reunite with his brother and-"

"Katto?! What happened to him?" Karin yells.

"Thanks to Orochimaru, I got separated from him. Hopefully, he's not harmed. Apparently, Orochimaru seems to know something about it, but I don't want to trust the guy." Sasuke continues.

"So, we do all that. Afterwards, we go our separate ways. Although if Orochimaru becomes too much of a problem, we may have to kill him too. Now, we go for Jugo."

Maybe if was because I was new to the hole Orochimaru prisoner thing, but Suigetsu and Karin both paled.

. . .

"WHAT?! The three tails has disappeared from its last known location?" Onoki yelled. He had been tracking it as a means of gaining what used to be the Mist's property, but now it was gone too. "First, the Kazekage/ one tail host. Then, the Cloud's two tailed beast. Now, the three tails is gone." he thought for a moment. " doesn't take a genius to notice the pattern. One time's a fluke. Two times coincidence. Three times? That is enemy action. Someone is against the Sand, Cloud, and Mist. We have to assume that they are against us as well." He looks to us. "That means both the next two targets are ours. Kurotsuchi and Katto. I want the two of you to guard Roushi. Kitsuchi will guard Han." We all nodded and sped off to our targets.

. . .

Well, this place looks like the fourth ninja war happened already. This base was a giant prison, containing the man we were here for. I looked at Sasuke. He simply walked right in. He didn't give a shit. I spent most of my time catching up with Karin and acquainting myself with Suigetsu. I felt we should enjoy the team aspect, but Karin and Suigetsu were possibly the worst two people to have in one group.

We walked through the prison, seemingly abandoned. Everyone here was either dead already or locked up. We came up to a large door. I, however, head a horrifically familiar voice.

_Ah. It's like being home._

. . .

OH MY GOD, having the Sharingan is AWESOME. I've learned in five days what takes most about a year. Why? Shisui makes a seal. I analyze the functions. He does it again. I watch the making of it. Then I try it, and it works. So overused. It's awesome!

Hiyori started going back and forth between here and the leaf village giving them lies about where we were. I did, however, want her to tell a select few people WHERE I was, but neglected to specify who I was with. She jumped in while we were practicing seals that absorb energy and pressure, allowing for paralysis or stunning for enemies and prisoners. We were now studying seals with chakra modifications. These included a seal to replace the chakra braces I had, prong seals that affect the chakra network, and a few minor curse seals.

"Hey, Hayato!" She landed in a chipper mood. This was weird for a couple reasons since we usually start off with a contest of playful insults.

"What's got you in such a good mood?" I asked confused.

"Uncle Hiashi and mom are training together and MAN, they are tough. Kenji is training personally with Kasuya right now, and I'm actually training with Kakashi. He said I'm close to unlocking the Sharingan!" She said happily.

"Nice?" I looked confused. "What happened with Naruto's mission?"

"They didn't manage to bring Sasuke back." We all slumped slightly. Hiyori and I both wanted to meet more of our clansmen. Then she looked worse. "I also found out the guy who went with them was Shinzo Kisaragi."

"Katto's brother?" I asked eagerly. We had promised to help Katto. "Where is he?"

She looked away. "He disappeared with Sasuke." DAMN IT!

"So we couldn't help Katto, really." I said sadly.

"Well, I did send a messenger hawk to the Stone about it. Katto will get the news. Anyway, gossip on the couple to be. They're training their elemental affinities!" I picked up on that.

"Together?" I asked suggestively.

"Oh, he's still woefully ignorant, but since her jonin teacher is out of commission I convinced Kakashi to take her into the training as well." She said holding up a peace sign in victory.

"Nice trap." I said with a laugh. "Anything else?"

"Nah. So where's Shisui?" I looked around for him with the Byakugon.

I look to where Shisui was, seeing a blank spot. "The hell?"

. . .

We stopped in the middle of the forest to make camp. This team was less than two days old, yet was already a ticking time bomb. Karin kicked Suigetsu again after he make a remark about her 'messy ass hair'. Karin then took her own spot beside me as Sasuke and Suigetsu sat opposite. Jugo sat to the side.

"What's the plan?" I ask.

"Itachi. After that, it's all you." Sasuke responds emotionless.

Karin interjected with a flirtatious voice. "Maybe it should just be me, Sasuke, and Shinzo. We don't need splashy and beast there." I look at her as she sobered up and rubbed her head sheepishly.

"When did you start acting like this?" She started to sweat but Suigetsu answered.

"Because she has the hots for Sasuke! Same with you is she asked you to come. The slut." Suigetsu laughed manically. Karin and I both sent kunai through him, but he just shrugged before Karin noticed my reaction of anger as well. I looked away, embarrassed.

"Enough." Sasuke said. "I'll take first watch. Karin is next. Then, Shinzo. Suigetsu after. Jugo last.

We nodded.

. . .

"And where exactly are you going?" I asked, appearing in front of Shisui as he ran through the forest.

"Out of the way. I need to go, now." For what, I wonder.

"Not until you tell me. I know we haven't known each other long, but being my half brother, I'm not moving without an answer."

"SAME HERE!" Hiyori lands, panting. "Fuck you, Hayato. I hate how fast you are." I smile at her.

"Love you too." I say sarcastically. I turn back to Shisui. "Don't think I won't let this slide. Tell me what you're doing." I command. Shisui smirks.

"I need to fulfill the wishes of a lost friend. . . that is all."

I hold my hands up to pause him as he tries to walk past me. "Which is it, Itachi or Sasuke?" He doesn't flinch. He knew the question was coming, clever bastard. Hiyori looked confused. Shisui only answered.

"I need to, or everything could go wrong." Fuck it. I don't NEED to know, but. . .

"Then I'm going." I state. He looked surprised.

"Don't look at me that way. Hiyori, you in?" She smiles.

"You realize Sasuke is trying to kill Itachi? And the sixth Uchiha will likely be there as well." Shisui asked.

We both smiled. "Bout time for a family reunion." Hiyori spoke out.

. . .

Oh, I hate those days where you want nothing but sleep. Katto, you need a chiropractor. Ugh. I look around for my guard slash trainer. "ROUSHI!" I yell for him. No answer. "Monkey, where are you?" A rock hit the back of my head.

"Goku is an ape, fool." I heard above me. I look up the stone pillar, finding Roushi sitting and meditating. "We have company." He stands and looks away. I follow his gaze before sweating heavily.

Kisame stood there with a smile. "Well well. Nice to see you again, kid. I'm here for the old man." Ohhhhhh, perfect.


	19. The Shark's Comeback! Part 1

"Katto, who is this?" I didn't answer. I began to look around for anything out of the ordinary.

"Where is your partner?" I ask. This caused Kisame to grin. "Akatsuki travel in pairs. Last time we fought was an exception, but where is he this time?" He chuckles.

"Can't you tell? He's up there!" He points Samehada up to a high plateau nearby. "He's not a very violent person, so he's staying well clear." I looked over to the figure. Too far to see clearly. The sunset behind him made him look of pure shadow. There was one thing. . . his eyes were glowing red.

"Sas. . . uke?" I spoke out before returning my attention to Kisame. "I'm not letting you take Roshi!"

"Then." He limbers out the sword. "Let's do this." Kisame's entire area exploded, Kisame jumped out from the debris. I look over to Roshi.

"His battle is with me. If his partner is not going to take part, then go get Kurotsuchi.

I perform a hand sign. "Wind Clone Jutsu!" I make a clone as the clone leaps off. "Done. Now, I'm staying here to help you fight." We stared at each other before he grunted with a chuckle.

"Young spirit. Okay. You seem to know this one. Name?" He asked me. I spoke quickly.

"Kisame Hoshigaki." Roshi has a look of understanding.

"The swordsman? I see. Water style user. Expert in close combat. Anything else, Katto?" At this point, Kisame jumped down in front of us. "Lava Armor!" His body heats and lights up, being covered in lava.

"Iron Skin!" My body hardens as I take a combat stance. "His sword absorbs chakra. The armor jutsu will protect you from serious damage, but the sword will still make shallow wounds through the jutsu." Roshi nods. "Earth Style: Geoshot Jutsu!"

"NOT TODAY!" Kisame swipes his sword at me as his sword absorbs the chakra from the jutsu before it starts. Kisame jumps back, dodging a lava powered punch from Roshi, which destroys the ground where Kisame stood.

I rush forward with more hand signs. Earth jutsu will have to be the primary here. Kisame, however, still beat me to the punch. "Water Style: Tsunami Splash Wave!" Okay, new hand signs. The water closes in on me.

"Woah, woah WOAH WOAH!" I finish the signs just in time before the water hits me. "Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu!" I blast the ground below me, propelling myself up like a rocket over the water. Roshi, with his armor, straight punches the water, splitting the wave in two. I land on one half as the stream carries me away a distance.

Kisame uses another jutsu. "Water Prison!" The second half of the wave forms a giant prison around Roshi, cooling his armor into rock, trapping him.

That won't hold him, but it wasn't meant to. Kisame wanted me out of this fight. He followed up his tsunami. "Water Style: Water Shark Shotgun Jutsu!" He fires three water sharks into the water. Child's play. One rises behind me, right into my foot as I smash it. The next two jump into the sky, coming down to me. I whip my arms out, smashing each shark with a stone fist, crushing them.

If he wants a jutsu battle, I'm happy to oblige. I summon a totem, one Kisame knew too well. He smiled as he launched himself at me. I smirked. "Totem Doom." Kisame knew this move has a prep time to be used. Without prep time. . .

The totem sucks in water and fires a stream at Kisame. The stream is relatively harmless as he charges through it. "No prep time leaves you out to dry, kid." I smirked, finishing the next hand sign.

"Lightning Style: Lightning Bolt Jutsu!" Not nearly as power as you'd think. Just an extremely fast one shock attack. I fire it into the stream. This is conducted off all the sediments in the stream of water, shocking Kisame. The swordsman is stunned a small moment, before realizing my next attack. "Lightning Style: Raiton Bullet Jutsu!" Lightning briefly encases my body as if fuels a single straight tackle into Kisame. I pin him to a rock, using my iron skinned elbow into Kisame's throat. He simply smirks.

"I underestimated you, but you aren't that tough." He grabs my arm and pulls me off. DAMN HE'S STRONG! He swings me off and slams me into the water. He then dives into the water, pinning me into the lake bottom with his sword, absorbing my chakra. I punch the sword off as I feel the scrapes all over my chest and arm. I charge more lightning into my body.

"Lightning Style: Zeus Jutsu!" Different from Hayato's Zeus Strike Jutsu. This charges my body with lightning, stunning Kisame next to me and causing damage with the conducting water. I charge in quick, uppercutting the shark man in the jaw with my right arm, still having the iron skin. Kisame is launched up to the surface, but before I can get to him, more Kisames appear from each direction. One kicks my footing out. Two grab me from behind.

The last calls out. "Water Shark Bomb Jutsu!" A single water shark plows into me point blank, biting my chest with little success thanks to the remaining iron skin, but still causes wounds. It carries me to the surface before the shark blows up with concussive force. The blasts me out of the water and into the real Kisame's grip as he grabs my throat. "good job kid. You've landed several good hits. But, this ends. I'm after Donkey, not Diddy."

I flex my arms forward. "Wind Style: Air Pump Jutsu!" I choke out as a weak wind blast fires him off me. We separate just in time for a lava coated fist to burst from the water and into Kisame, sending him away and wounded. Roshi lands in front of me, ripping off some solidified rock from his limbs.

"My turn." He made several hand signs before leaping high into the air. "KATTO GET BACK!" I oblige. I launch myself back with as much power I can. "METEOR APOCOLYPSE JUTSU!" Roshi's body becomes encased with bright red chakra along with lava building up in front of him. He fires off a MASSIVE lave meteor down from the sky. The jutsu is advanced further by a mass of red chakra from his tailed beast around the attack.

The attack crashes into the lake with Kisame barely having time to look up to it. . .

. . .

"So, where do we go?" I ask my white haired, shark toothed companion.

"We just need to find the criminals in this town. They'll know Akatsuki's whereabouts." Suigetsu responded.

"Yeah. I know where to go. This is one of the towns my team had looked over. I know where to go." Brief flashes come through about my best friend Reese, my brother Katto, and my sensei Kinvari overlooking the area. They are long past looking over the area, so there was no chance we were gonna run into them.

"Alright!" He proclaims with excitement. "Lead me there, and I'll get the info."

Hm. Sasuke was with Jugo, keeping him sane. Karin was scouting the area for any threats with her sensing skills. We were assigned to getting information about Akatsuki. "So, Suigetsu. Tell me bout yourself."

. . .

So this is how the dinosaurs died.

The entire landscape that was once water was now a smoldering battleground of molten rock. Roshi and I were at the edge of the waste land.

"Damn man." I say. "That WAS immmpressive." I speak in a quirky way just to show how awesome that was. Roshi smiles.

"It's been a while since I've had to go that far with my attacks. So, we're down to one." We looked over to the high plateau, but the figure up there did not move. Simply stood, still with bright red eyes. The sun had finished setting, so now it looked demonic as several crows flew near it.

"He's still up there. . . so that means Kisame is still. . ." I get cut off as water erupts from the burning wasteland. The water forms above us in a giant sphere. It continued to build and build. "Oh. . . damn."

We both look to the water was coming from as Kisame stood out from the crater, covered in burns, open gash wounds, and bleeding. He held Samehada with him as he just smiled wider than before.

The air grew thicker as chakra poured from both Kisame and Roshi. The sword Samehada then began to morph and change around, before fuzing into Kisame's body. His body began to take a metamorphosis before launching up into the giant mass of wave overhead. Roshi then erupted with chakra, covered with a blood red chakra cloak, with three chakra tails whipping around behind him. I look back and forth between him and the mass.

Why am I here?


	20. The Shark's Comeback! Part 2

"You okay?" I ask.

"Fine. Let's just keep going." Shisui states. He's been getting more impatient the farther we've gone.

I activate my eyes. "Hiyori, there are several hidden doors in the alleys over there. Some criminals are holed up in there. Get some info for us."

She nods and walks away from us as we move to the market place.

. . .

"WE NEED TO MOVE! NOW!" Karin broke the door down. We had just gotten finished gathering all the information and telling Sasuke and Jugo.

"What is it?" I ask.

"Ninja. Three of them. I sense that they are tough." She looks at me and Sasuke. "I mean obviously we could take them, but-"

"Let's go." Sasuke and I spoke at the same time.

. . .

Why am I here?

That was the thought as Roshi transformed into the giant four tailed ape Son Goku. The giant beast next to me fired off with lava and earth into the mass of water as the water came down onto us.

I blasted out of the water and onto on of the rock pillars nearby. I looked at the mass of water as it would light up, burst outward, and rumble as the shark and ape duked it out. The flash of several lava attacks lit up the water before a massive explosion blew the water dome apart.

Once the vision cleared, I saw Roshi land beside me. He was now in his one tailed state. "His new form absorbed almost all Goku's power." He stated out of breath. "I managed to blast out of the situation with a last minute Tailed Beast Bomb. He's heavily injured, but he will heal soon. . ."

We both looked up, finding Kisame, already back. His shark form was still intact, although it seemed to be changing back to his original form. The sword Samehada ripped from Kisame's body and fell to the ground. Kisame stood, completely healed and feeling ready to go. He picked the sword back up, now shirtless with torn pants. "Well, looks like Samehada used all the chakra stored in it to heal my wounds. You're quite a physical fighter." He smiled. "Even without that form, however, I'm still back at 100%."

Well, shit. Roshi powered down from his one tail form and formed his Lava Armor again. Didn't take long to realize why. If he continued using Goku's chakra, Kisame would get enough back to use that shark form again. . . I powered my iron skin up again, using some of the remaining chakra I had. This would be pure close combat at this point. The iron skin sealed my wounds, but it worsened the strain on the wounds.

We charged together as Kisame charged back. Kisame attacks with his longer reach as I jump forward and block the hit. The attack pushes me back as Roshi jumps over me, bringing his fist down on Kisame. Kisame dodges left and sweeps his sword at Roshi, knocking him back and gashing his shoulder through his lava armor.

I use most of the remainder of my chakra into one more lightning move. "Zeus Jutsu!" The lightning stuns Kisame as I push in and slam my fist through him. Kisame's body then turns to water. SHIT!

Kisame comes from above, crashing his sword down onto me. However, that's my turn for the fake out as I turn to a puff of wind. Wind clone. Kisame looks to his right finding me and Roshi, arms locked together with iron skin and lava armor active, both doing a clothesline into Kisame's throat. This sends him through the rock pillars and into the ground, but he rolls to his feet.

I fall to my knees as my iron skin gives out. "Damn it." Roshi stands defensively between me and Kisame as the shark smirks.

"Time for this again." He does several hand signs before launching his strongest attack. "SUPER WATER SHARK BOMB JUTSU!"

FUCK ME! The same giant shark from our last battle launches forward. I yell out "That thing absorbs more chakra as it goes, becoming stronger. The ONLY thing that can stomp it fully is earth jutsu!"

Roshi nods as he channels his one tail cloak forms to fuel one more jutsu. "GREAT LAVA WALL!" A massive wall of lava and rock forms between us and the attack. The one tail cloak disappears as Roshi throws another jutsu in. "MUD WALL" This simple but effective earth wall rises behind his first move. The combined walls shudder and smash apart, but the shark does make it through. However. . .

"WATER SHARK SHOTGUN BARRAGE!" Several dozen water sharks blast through as Roshi calls out.

"Scorching Stream Rock Jutsu" Dozens of lava rocks blast into the sharks, canceling out the with the sharks.

Kisame rockets through, pinning Roshi down. He blasts out with a stream of lava, but Samehada absorbs the chakra, leaving behind a mass of rock that holds Roshi there. Roshi struggles, but Kisame pins his sword onto Roshi's shoulder. I could tell Roshi was losing the last of his own chakra. Kisame then blasts an exploding water shark point blank. When the debris clears, Kisame starts to walk off with Roshi hanging off his sword.

I step to my feet and charge him, kunai in hand, but I'm stopped by another man's hand around my throat. I hear a calm headed voice say. "It's over."

The last thing I see is a set of Sharingan eyes.

. . .

"SASUKE!" I yell out. I look confused a moment before seeing Kurotsuchi. She was unconscious as well. I think back to what I last remember seeing. . .

"Genjutsu. . . I HATE it!" I see Kurotsuchi and wake her up.

"Eh. What?!" She sees me. "We lost Roshi."

"Why are you here?" I ask her confused.

"I arrived right after you got put down. . ." I nod.

"And you got your ass kicks, I got ya." my response was a bonk on the head. After rubbing the spot, I get up.

"Get ready."

"What?"

"We're getting Roshi back!"

. . .

This makes three. We've been searching through all the abandoned Uchiha caches in the regions. Shisui knew their locations by heart. We had eventually seen the pattern that all the medicine in each location was taken. Some locations were guarded by ninja cats, but seeing Shisui, they did not mind. Eventually, we found a location Sasuke had been to only a day before us. We were also told Itachi was a frequent flier at these caches. As we left, we checked surrounding areas for more clues.

"That way." I state. They left a trail. . .

. . .

"Hey, Shinzo." Sasuke asked me. I perk up. "Keep Jugo company here. I'm going out." Before I could respond, he shut the door.

Karin was out scouting again, so Suigetsu, Jugo, and I were left in an apartment. I looked to Jugo, this being the first chance to talk.

_Feeling homesick, are we? _

I'm not you! "So, Jugo. I've been meaning to. . . well."

"You wish to know why your curse mark is so different from others?" Is it that obvious? I ignore that.

"Yeah. I seem to have this second voice in my head, telling me to unleash the power. It seeks dominance."

"Most curse seals have similar traits to that. The power of the curse seal is uncontrolled nature chakra that causes insanity and rage. That's why I cannot be around people." He seemed sad as he explained. "Although, having it actually talk as a separate entity? I haven't heard of that. I know some will end up with split personality, but your scenario is new." I didn't like the scenario. His eyes darkened as his hands clenched into fists.

Before anything happens, he is wrapped in wire. I stare at him in the eyes, battling my curse mark as it tries to push through at Jugo's tantrum. I win, however. Jugo does as well. "I'll keep you safe until Sasuke gets back." I smile at him, feeling a bit of victory at suppressing the mark.

"Don't give in. . ." He said. That stopped me. "It's power runs deeper than it's showing. Do not allow it through."

I take that advice to heart.

. . .

Itachi. . . soon this will be over. I stood in an empty field far from town. Sometimes, solitude helps. "Soon. . ." I sense a presence coming as I turn to face it.

Two men stood there. One with a spiral mask and short black hair. The other with long blond hair and a sight enhancement over one eye. I recognized the cloak. "So you're Itachi's brother, eh?" The blonde spoke. "You certainly have the brooding look."

"Unless you're here to tell me where Itachi is, I don't have time for you." I turn to leave.

The second one's voice sounded like something that would make my ears bleed. "Ohhhhh, you shouldn't refuse an audience with Deidara! He will make you sorry!" He sounded like a kid. "Oh, how RUDE!"

The area in front of me exploded as I barely bat an eyelash. I turn around to see the blonde's hands in a seal. The masked on stepped back a bit. "Don't be so cocky that you can just leave, punk." His hands reached into his pouches. "After all, one should always see true art before they die."

A quick image of Naruto and Ino flashes into mind before this new guy is added. "It's always the blondes getting in my way."


	21. Battles Everywhere!

The girl's been running from us for a only a few minutes, but she's alright proving difficult. She's tries genjutsu covers, transformation jutsu, and even laying traps. Of course, she can't beat my eyes. We continued after her.

"If this girl is with Sasuke's group, then we might have trouble." Shisui spoke. He hung back as Hiyori jumped to the side. We were gonna direct her to their hideout one way or another.

"She's stopped in the next town." I say. Shisui called Hiyori back to us at my signal.

"What's up? I thought I was supposed to circle around the town."

"She's stopped in the town. . . There's four of them. Sasuke isn't one of them, but one is Katto's brother." Hiyori gasps as Shisui grunts, having been informed of the situation earlier.

. . .

Kurotsuchi and I stopped on a large branch as we looked above. A messenger bird flies down, landing on Kurotsuchi's shoulder. She took the message on it before shaking. "This can't be!"

"What now?" I asked irritated.

"Han has been captured!" She yelled in anger. My eyes widened.

"What about Kitsuchi? Your dad?"

"he. . . he was killed. He left a message. He was poisoned, so he had time to leave evidence. They tried following the trail like we are now, but apparently they only found Han's body. The extraction had been completed already. . ."

WHAT?! How the HELL could they accomplish that so quickly? "but. . . The Kazekage's beast extraction took three days! How-"

"Han was taken before Roshi. . ." My mind was overtaken at that point. Why was he taken first? How? Their pattern was fake. The hell?

"But. How were we not informed?" She just looked over the note. "Apparently, they had taken Han as the two we encountered were on their way to us. Han was sealed first. I still don't know how it happened so fast. That's what we are going to find out I guess. . ." Her voice trailed off as her eyes started to water. This only angered me more.

"Come on. . ." She followed me as we came up to a large cave. Kisame's trail led inside.

. . .

"Karin! Calm down!" I shake her until she regains her senses. "I sense those three from before. They've been on my heels for a good deal of time. They cornered me into coming here." Then she turned her head to the left. "Why is Sasuke fighting a strong chakra?!" WHAT?! We all got up.

"We need to move. Those three are going to close in any moment. We also need to help Sasuke." I state, becoming the de facto leader.

Suigetsu adds in. "I already got the back up way to get Sasuke out of there, but he should do well himself. We need to focus on the three first." Good. At least Sasuke had a back up plan.

"Fine." We leap out from the apartment complex and into the street. . . just in time for three individuals to land in front of us. The people in the street ran.

. . .

Yep. That was Shinzo. "Hey there. We need to see Sasuke." Shisui spoke for us.

"And to you, Shinzo." I add. Shinzo seemed more than a little distressed by the addition. The three adds got into combat stances.

"Yeah, yeah. What about?" He said bitterly.

"We want to get you to your brother." Hiyori spoke. He seemed surprised.

"How. . . do you know him? Who sent you?!" He seemed slightly angered by the mention. "You're not from the grass! You should know nothing unless you've done something to him!" This went the wrong way.

"We're trying to help you two. . ." I said. "Your brother is currently at the Stone Village. He's fine. He actually asked us to send any information about you his way." Shinzo's face became one of understanding a moment, but he still stood defiant.

"I make a promise to someone I've come to respect." His left foot came forward. His right hand hovers over scrolls as his left hovers over his sash. "I will help Sasuke kill Itachi, then he is to help me find Katto. . . and now I know where to go, so thank you. I can't go yet, however. I keep my promises." I contain a small chuckle. It sounded like Naruto. I smiled.

"I respect that concept, but we still need to talk to Sasuke." Shisui came forward.

"I have information for him and for Itachi. I need to speak with both." The groups looked warily at one another.

"No one is speaking to anyone." A new voice rang. We all looked up. Two figures stood on the opposite buildings to our right and left. One had short silver hair and a large scythe. The other had green eyes but was otherwise completely covered. "Deidara went ahead to try killing Sasuke, so we're going to take care of the riff raft." The covered one spoke.

"Hey, Kakuzu. Which ones do you want first? I'm itching to test myself here!" The silver haired one spoke with a tone of anticipation. "But just to say it now! Most of these fools are going right the fuck down the road to Jashin!"

"Whatever, Hidan." The first spoke. He eyed me, Shinzo, and Hiyori. "Those three are the ones we want alive. The rest. . . have fun."

I chuckle. "You all sound a little overconfident. I've seen Akatsuki in action. You're not gonna be able to beat all of us so easily." Shinzo smirked.

"I think I can agree with that."

. . .

We went through the cave, finding very little evidence. However. . .

"ROSHI!" I yell out as we see him. The extraction was taking place now?! How? His energy was being sucked out into. . . something. As soon as my voice ran in the chamber, all of the figures disappeared, having been mere holograms. We make out the number of figures still there. Four in total.

"I told you leaving them alive would ruin it, Itachi. Can I kill them now?" Kisame's voice sounded.

"I guess so, but we could retreat while our other members can have their fun." I assume Itachi's voice was that one. Kisame tries to get Roshi's unconscious body, but I win out in speed.

"Jutsu Combo: Raiton Zeus Bullet!" Lightning charges around me as I charge and close the distrance first, punching Kisame's sword with my iron skin fist. The lightning charged punch sends him away as I grab Roshi. The other figures seem like they were going to attack, but a blast of cement like substance hits between us as Kurotsuchi launches another jutsu.

"I got you covered! Half Earth Dome Jutsu!" As soon as we both get together, she creates a large half dome of rock, sealing the cave. We rush through the cave, running for our lives.

We reach the exit as she makes another half dome to seal the entrance of the cave. As soon as that jutsu finishes, a few muffled calls were heard. I'm pretty sure the word 'sand' was used. . .

As expected, a large wave of sand ripped through the sealed entrance and blasted both of us back. Roshi flew from my hands, but I made a wind clone and threw it at Roshi. It caught him and started running as we stood our ground. We looked up at the man who attacked us.

"No way. . ."

Kurotsuchi looked at me and asked. "What?"

I don't direct my speech at her. "You're supposed to be dead!"

I young man with bright red hair stood before us. He wore the Akatsuki cloak. He also had ten puppets handing behind him. "I know. The story is unbelievable, but I don't have time to explain." He pointed at the direction my clone took Roshi. "I need him."

"I'll take care of that Lord Sasori." A man came out from behind him. Silver hair. Glasses. His hand charged with chakra.

"Do what you want, Kabuto."

I wasted no time. "Fire Ball Jutsu!" I launched the blast, but it was blocked last second. As the smoke cleared, Sasori stood there. His body was protected fully by sand.

My thoughts were spoken out loud. "But. . . the Kazekage's?" A wave of sand erupted at us, causing us to pull back from the tsunami wave. Then we hear something behind it.

"Iron Sand." From the sand tsunami, grayish black sand rips through as a sneak attack. We both dodge is and leap away.

"That was close. . ." I looked as the wave of sand went away. "You're the one who poisoned Kitsuchi. . ." Kurotsuchi gasped at that as her eyes reflected her anger.

"I'll kill him. . ."

Sasori chuckled. "Stronger ninja than you have tried. Some succeeded, but I'm not about to have a repeat." He laughs as sand forms around him. "Not with Shukaku on my side."

. . .

A blast sent us back. Suigetsu, Jugo, Karin, and I were set against this Hidan guy. He was STRONG. Too strong. . . this power wasn't his. Flames erupted from his scythe as chakra formed around him. The chakra seemed to be a hue of red and blue. He smirked at us. "I'm enjoying this!" He laughed maniacally.

"We looked over to the other group as they fought with Kakuzu. Kakuzu's body became surrounded by a red cloak as well.

"We may need some back up." I say nervously.


	22. Three Losing Battles!

This is NOT gonna go well. Kurotsuchi and I were stuck against a suped up super Akatsuki member with part of the Kazekage's power. We were SO not ready for this. She was ready to fight fresh, but I was maybe a little over 60%. . .

"Any Ideas?" She asked me. Yeah, I was the one to make the plan. . .

Okay, two jutsu are a must to use in this situation. Hades Fury and Totem Doom. Problem, both required prep time. Another issue is that I need most of my remaining chakra for my trump. Either of those jutsu would take about 20% out of me. I need 30% for my surprise. The little I have past that will need to fuel my iron skin. . . that leaves only one thing I can do to hold him back. I take a scroll out of my pocket. I slam the scroll down as a giant fan appears.

Sasori seems amused by this while Kurotsuchi seems puzzled. "You're gonna fight with a fan? Isn't that a hidden sand fighting style anyway?"

"Maybe." I smirk. "But it'll help with the situation." The fan was identical to Temari's. The metal framing pitch black. The folds were a deep dark, navy blue as blackened flames decorated the fan. I turn to Kurotsuchi. "Take to the air. I'll take the attention of the puppets. I need you to use your congealing cement for something." I explained my plan to her as she nodded. She took to the sky. I look to my opponent. As long as I plan this right. . . I can win this. . . "Wind Clone" A second me appears behind me as he lands on a branch to the back of the battlefield. He started performing hand signs.

"Enough of the amusement." Sasori states. His ten fodder puppets fly forward.

"Bring it, Woody." I whip the fan out as everything in front of me shakes and flies off from the wind blast. I start stepping forward, backward, sideways, and jumping as I whip the fan around launching wind blast after blast at the approaching threats. The area obscures with debris as I look over the damage. "What?"

The puppets were relatively unharmed. They floated there as the third Kazekage puppet comes down with them. The eleven puppets fall back behind a wave of sand. The wave closes in as I use one of my blasts to make a break in the wave. A leap through the break as puppets close in from all sides. I fold the fan and pin it to the ground, pole vaulting over the first one. Upon landing behind it, I blast three others away with the fan. I fold it back again to swing it like a bat, parrying the bladed arm of another puppet. I jump away as two puppets follow. I stop myself and direct another blast behind me, launching me forward as I clothesline both puppets. One manages to hit the fan out of my hands.

"Iron Sand." I land as iron tendrils attack from all directs. I smirk as the attack hits me. The tendrils fail to pierce me as I rip free of the trap, punching a puppet beside my fan and planting it into the ground. I grab to fan and fall back. "Oh? I thought Kakuzu was the only practitioner of that technique."

I smirked until the sand closed in around me. Almost there. . .

. . .

I dodge a slash from Hidan's scythe as I back off. Suigetsu attacks Hidan, but the Akatsuki member's speed in the beast cloak was too much for him to be on the defensive. Suigetsu let Hidan hit him, allowing Suigetsu to go for a killing blow, but Hidan managed to out maneuver it. Jugo charged in as I studied the fight. Hidan would continually hit Suigetsu, cursing about the water, but used his weapon to hook himself to something to pull away before getting hurt. For Jugo, he would repeatedly try to attack spots on Jugo where his body wasn't morphed and more durable. What caught my eye was that none of his strikes were killing blows. . .

I pulled out the first scroll and made my move at the opening. "Million Knives Jutsu!" I launch the attack at Hidan, who looks up completely unable to block it. In fact, he didn't. All of them hit his area as he became a pin cushion of knives.

"What kind of PUSSY attack was that?!" He yelled. The hell?! He should be dead! He laughs as the kunai remove themselves from his body and his wounds heal using the tailed beast chakra. He smiles like a mad man as he throws his scythe at me. The weapon erupts in blue flames.

Pulling out the next scroll. "Trifecta Threat!" It releases the three spinning shields covered with explosive tags. The first shield faces the scythe and both tools explode on each other. The scythe reels back to its user as the shield falls to the ground. The second shield closes in on him. In defense, he places the scythe in front and spins it mid air, coating it in blue and red flames. The scythe's flames defend against the second shield's explosion. Upon blocking the attack, he whips the scythe to his left, hooking it into the ground to pull him out of the way of the third shield. He rushes me.

"DIE PUNK!" I pull the next scroll out smirking.

"Whirling Barrier Jutsu!" This summons several floating wires around me, each containing kunai with explosive tags. The lines spin around me as Hidan's attack meets the lines. End result? Boom. The lines float far enough from me to keep me from harm, and the explosions repel weaker attacks and physical charges. Hidan is launched back, skidding to a halt. It didn't stop him much as he was already preparing another charge.

"Water Dragon Jutsu!" Hidan spun the scythe in flames and created a vortex of flames to block the water dragon from above. Suigetsu lands in front of him as the flames disappear. He and Hidan clash weapons as Hidan lights himself up in the flames. Of course, this meant bad things for Suigetsu. The water man fell to his knees under the heat as Hidan prepared to strike with a flaming attack. Suddenly, he looked up and jumped back as Jugo landed with a crashing fist, breaking the ground. Karin lands with him and grabs Suigetsu, pulling him away.

I pull another scroll out as I charge past Jugo. "Great White Storm!" I summon ten windmill shuriken linked to my arms as I launch them all at their intended destinations. Hidan stands still as all ten move around him. He seems confused until I pull the hidden wired on them. This causes each shuriken to fire the blades out in all directions, causing Hidan to get impaled in every way. He staggers as I rush him, running his heart through with a summoned sword.

He still lived. . . He chuckled, but still seemed stunned by the damage done. I rip the sword upward through his shoulder and collar bone. I jump back, putting the sword away in its seal. "Use all you want, you bitch ass brat! I'll still be alive!"

"Then I'll just keep killing you until you die. . ." I reply.

. . .

I jump back as Kakuzu smashed his fist into the ground. His body was starting to pulsate. Shisui, Hiyori, and I were set against him.

"Why don't you quit playing with us?" Shisui yells. Hiyori and I look at him confused a moment.

"You know, hmm?" the man seemed surprised.

"I can hear five heart beats in you." Spit take? "How about you show us how you really fight." Kakuzu chuckled.

"Okay, then." Suddenly, three black masses rip from his body as they all move around him.

"The FUCK?!" I yell. Each mass forms into a beast with a mask. This turned from three on one to four on three. Shisui stepped up.

"Stay back you two."

"But-" Hiyori gets cut off.

"I'm going to use my skills to hold out as long as I can. Get as much info as you can from the encounter and devise a counter strategy." He flashes out of sight and appears, kicking one of the masks back. The second mask turns to him, blasting him into the air with a gust of wind. The third, sends a wave of fireballs up at him. Shisui smirks as the fireballs fly through his image.

Genjutsu. I smile as my half brother as he appears, punching the stationary Kakuzu in the jaw, causing Kakuzu to stagger, but he holds his ground. He goes to punch Shisui, but the Uchiha uses his superior speed to duck it and palm strike Kakuzu's ribs. Shisui jumped back as Kakuzu's arm extended out on metallic threads, punching Shisui. The result in a puff of smoke as Shisui rises from the ground as Kakuzu's feet. He tries to uppercut Kakuzu, but the Akatsuki member dodges back, but not before Shisui palms his other side of his rib cage. Before he can get away, however, Kakuzu connects a punch to Shisui's jaw, launching him away. His other arm extends out and catches Shisui at the throat.

Shisui makes a hand sign. . . as the two explosive tags placed at Kakuzu's ribs explode. Kakuzu's grip releases as Shisui finished more signs. "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" He sends a large fire blast into the debris at Kakuzu before jumping back and back flipping to dodge several lightning shots from a mask. He lands before seeing two masks together. The wind and fire attacks mix and send a giant blast at Shisui.

"Rotation!" I intercept the attack and block the blast with the rotation technique. Hiyori lands with us as we face the three hearts. "Didn't you get him?"

"No." Shisui states. "I barely scratched him. "We looked forward, finding Kakuzu standing in the area of detonation, now with half blown off clothes.

"Congratulations. I didn't see that coming. Still, you failed however." We took a step back.

"What did you get from that?" Shisui asked us.

"Each heart uses a single element. One has fire. One has Lightning. One has wind. Kakuzu himself is Mr fantastic and is indestructible." I see the mask on his back with brown décor. "He has a final mask still in him. Looks like it would be earth style. Must be for his durability."

"So lightning is the only thing to kill him?" Hiyori asks. I consider the options.

"Okay. I got something that can work for this." I look at Shisui as he nods to me. "Hiyori. I need you to take the masks. Use your puppets to take them on. You may need your third one." She nodded. I looked at Kakuzu. "I'll take stitchy."

. . .

FUCK! That hurts. I slam into the sand as it attempts to crush me. The puppets surround me and attempt to impale me as well. Both attempts fail due to the iron skin. "Heh. What's the matter? Can't perform?"

"Your mouth is something I need to fix." Sasori states. The sand covers my mouth, stopping me from talking. Although one thought comes to mind. It's time. Just need to get away.

My body covers with lightning. Raiton Bullet. I blast from the sand, rushing away from the eleven puppets and sand. The lightning disappears as I land on the edge of the battlefield with my clone before whipping my fan around and blasting another wave at the attackers. The puppets get up from the hit as I assess the damage. "How are your puppets not damaged? I should have crushed them by now." I state calmly. Sasori smirks.

"Take a closer look." I look to the areas of the puppets I've hit as it seems like an extra exterior shell is cracking off of them. . .

"Sand Armor. . ." Sasori chuckles.

"Saves me from having to rebuild them all, doesn't it?" I smiled.

"Yeah, well. Let's see if it protects them and you from this." I smile as the temperature starts to shoot to extremes. Sasori seemed surprised. He then tries to gun out of the clearing, but I smile when we both see what cuts him all.

A cement wall was set up around the perimeter by Kurotsuchi. She stood on the tall wall with a tired smile. Sasori didn't have time to climb as the technique started. "Hades Fury!" I yell.

. . .

Hidan blasted Jugo and I back as I took out another scroll. I unravel it shouting out. "Heavenly Steel Shower!" The scroll releases countless kunai, sickles, shuriken, and all manner of thrown tools as they attack Hidan, who dodges most of it, taking only shallow hits.

But that wasn't the point. "JUGO, GET BACK!" The big man jumps away as I pull my self in towards Hidan. I pull on countless chakra wires that connect to every weapon I've used on this battlefield, including those from the million knives jutsu earlier. I spin in place as all the weapons whirl around me in a hell storm of weapons as I shout. " Ninja Tool Fusion: Metallic Inferno!" All the explosives in all the weapons go off in a raging tornado of flames and metal debris.

Once the smoke clears, I scanned the area for him. Unfortunately, I heard him before seeing him. "YOU LITTLE FUCKER THAT HURT!" He got up from the ground as his Akatsuki cloak is pretty much gone and he wears nothing but pants. He holds his scythe out as his horrific wounds start to heal. "I'll gut you and make you a tribute to Jashin."

"Sounds wonderful." I say sarcastically. "But I have other plans." Hidan charges me, now having the fully tail cloak around him again. I quickly unravel a scroll, transferring the seal on the scroll to my hand. We clash as he gashes my shoulder while I palm his leg. He then grabs me by the throat, chucking me away like a ball. I smile. The scroll I dropped beside him glows as he jumps away from it. "Ninja Tool: Hellfire Dynamo. . ." The scroll releases dozens of kunai much like the millions knives, but this goes differently. . .

"This again? Hah!" He uses his enhanced speed to side step them and charges at me again.

"Look behind you." I say confidently. He turns as all the missed kunai are now homing in on him. He looks to his leg, finding the seal I placed. "Boom goes the dumbass." He turns as uses his fire affiliation from the two tails as a shield, but it doesn't stop the attack fully as all the homing torpedoes explode on impact, rocketing Hidan away.

He lands on his feet still with a smile. I get up with my own smile on my face. Now, to use my trump- GAHH! I fall to the ground, clutching my shoulder.

Not now. . . Not now. . . bad timing.

_On the contrary, I think it is rather good timing. I'll take the immortal from here._

My body burned as the first level of the curse seal activated, flooding the presences influence over me. I battled it for dominance as the first level curse seal markings flared as changed spots on me. Hidan however, was in a different transformation. He quickly licked the blade of his weapon as his body became a pitch black with white ritual markings. As he did this, his feet marked a ritual circle into the ground.

"Time for the tribute." He said menacingly. He pulled a thin, pointed pole out and impaled himself in the leg.

"GAAHHHHHH!" I hunched over holding a new wound in my leg. My mind racing over what was going on. . .

_LET ME FIGHT, OR WE WILL DIE!_

I could have won if you didn't interfere! I scream that thought over and over in my head.

_Let me kill him for you, or die like a weakling. _

All that enters my mind is one word. Die. I can't die yet. I need to find Katto and make sure he's okay!

"FINE!" I yell out as I give in to the mark. The change was much more sudden this time. I didn't get the outside view this time. I only had the view through what was supposed to be my eyes. Suddenly, Hidan was in my face, or rather I was now in his face. I saw the shocked face he had as he was attacked by the curse mark.

. . .

The three masks get into a defensive around Kakuzu as Hiyori takes her large scroll. She unrolls it enough for three symbols. "Summon!" She summons three puppets. Yama, Hitsuguya, and a new one. This one is jet black with a smooth detail less helmet like mask. The puppet had a light silver cloak with no sleeves and a sword in the right hand. The off hand had several spikes embedded in it. She jumped as far back as she could. She definitely could not do close combat well while controlling three puppets. With twitches of her fingers, the black puppet and blue Hitsuguya puppets wave their arms towards Yama. "Get ready to lose to my bouncing bad asses! Yama!" Then Yama and the black puppet point to Hitsuguya. "Hitsuguya!" Then the first two point to the black one. "And now! Introducing their new black brother from me, their mother, Kaname!" The black puppet then started a horribly racist interpretation of puppet break dancing. . .

"Please. . . for the love of god, never do that again." I tell her, face palming. She pouts.

"Fine." Then she gets a devilish look as she moves her fingers wildly, moving Kaname. "INFINITE DARKNESS JUTSU!" Kakuzu's face instantly goes from embarrassment to shock. The entire battleground coats in a deep black for a brief flash, then everything is back to normal as the three masks look back and forth. They could not see anymore. "YEAH!" Kaname charged sword first, tackling the lightning mask away and into a building, crushing it from the inside. The wind mask tries to launch an attack to aid, but Yama flames the area around the wind mask as he reigns hell from above. The fire mask, unable to tell where it attacks, just blasts out in all directions. The flames are deflected away from us as Hitsuguya creates crystal ice to stop it. Once the flames are stopped, Hitsuguya shoots through the ice, rocketing into the mask. Hiyori concentrates hard, but manages to take enough focus back to me. "go. I got them."

I smirk. "I got this. Wind Aura!" I charge through the entangled mess of puppets kicking mask ass while I run images in my head. I think of Kazuya sensei. . . Both of my hands go into one handed hand signs down at my sides. Kakuzu whips both arms at me with lightning speed as red chakra forms with him. Thanks to my Sharingan and Wind Aura, I fall to me knees, sliding under the fists before jumping to me feet. Both hands end up on the same one handed sign. "Zues Double Strike!" I swiftly slap my hands together in a mock gun position as the lightning from both jutsu combines. "LIGHTNING GUN!" The large blast hits Kakuzu, launching Kakuzu back, but he stays his ground.

The demon chakra must be strengthening his iron skin, but the Lightning Gun wasn't meant to pierce it anyway. Merely to severely weaken. I quickly channel different chakras to each hand as both palms light up with different seals shown on them. Time for my growth. I rocket at Kakuzu, slamming both hands into his chest. The seal in one hand injects my chakra into and around the inside of Kakuzu's chest. "Injection Seal!" Then I activate the second one. "Contain!"

Kakuzu looks up at me, wondering what I did. "Fool!" He bashed me away as I hit the ground by Hiyori. "Whatever you tried. It failed."

I get up, wiping the blood from my mouth chuckling. "Really? Look at your back!" He does so as goes wide eyed. The brown earth mask on his back was gone! "Hehe." I hold up my right arm. The seal disappears. "I used that one to pierce my chakra into your body through your chakra network. An offshoot of lightning, gentle fist, and sealing put together." Then I hold up my left arm. "This one was a space seal. This contains everything that the chakra from the first seal surrounds. In this situation. . ."

I deactivate the seal as a mask creature lands beside me much like the others. "Chidori!" I copy Kakashi's technique, taking the increased hit to my chakra network, to impale the mask. Kakuzu coughs as he seemingly feels the heart being destroyed. The mask form turns to a liquid like state, completely dead. I smile. "So who's the fool?" I ask condescendingly.

"Damn you. . ." He spoke. His other masks were also on the losing end of their fights with Hiyori. "You just sentenced yourself to death." The air got heavier as the red chakra formed again.

. . .

The entire battlefield erupted like the surface of the sun. I watched as I knew that Sasori must have be obliterated. My eyes burned from the frontline view. It took a moment to readjust.

"Damn. That was nice." I didn't even see Kurotsuchi there before.

"Well, let's hope it worked. I'm drained."

"That's too bad. I'm just getting started." NO! We both looked up to find the entire battlefield now a wasteland of glass. He used the sand to block the erupting flames! I looked to his puppets. All were entrapped in glass. However, the third Kazekage puppet breaks free with iron sand. Sasori came up walking next to it, also partially covered in glass, though he used a little of the iron sand to break it off. "Yeah. That was entertaining and all, but I think I need to end this."

Kurotsuchi backs off, now intimidated. "Kurotsuchi, run!" She looks at me like I was an idiot.

"What!?"

"Kabuto has been gone. Go make sure he doesn't take Roshi again!" She looks back and forth before turning to leave. I summon a large scroll that hangs from my back. The fan I had was put away.

"Going at me one on one? With your chakra levels? Madness." Sasori chuckled.

I smile. I have one move left. He had one puppet right? Well, besides himself. It's time to kick that son of a bitch, Sasori's, ass so hard. . . that the next Sasori wannabe. . . is gonna feel it.

I unravel the scroll as look at the scroll itself. First time uses in battles are fun. . . I needed an extra look. I put the scroll back to hang behind me as I clapped my hands together to start concentrating.

Sasori was getting impatient, an apparent trait of his. He finally sends out his iron sand as the glass we stand on starts to crack. Sand starts to come through the cracks, but not enough to do anything. The iron sand gets within striking distance before I one punch the iron spike out of existence. A light aura of blue comes around me as my eyes color comes out. Instead of the usual golden hazel, they were now glowing gold. "First Jutsu of the Hikari Clan. Hikari's Gift!" I rocket forward at lightning speeds as I punch the iron sand puppet into the glass ground with a flaming punch. The iron skin around me became modified by the technique. I then concentrated my power as Sasori attacked me with regular sand. I sent my power forward as a blast of wind blew the sand out of the way.

What Hikari's gift was was a technique that flared your whole chakra network much like the eight inner gates. However, instead of going to physical power and ripping your body apart, it manifested as elemental chakra, allowing the user to use all chakra natures. There were two downsides. One, you could not focus the massive chakra into techniques. Only raw elemental power, no jutsu. The other was that the technique requires about 30% of my chakra pool only to activate, which was pretty much all I had left. It drains further the longer it goes. Gonna have to make this count.

I channel wind chakra into my left hand. Fire chakra in the other. I combine them into a combo attack. "BOOYAH MOTHER FUCKER!"

The attack seemed to hit. The problem was it hit the wrong puppet. Six new puppets now lay on the ground burning as Sasori still stood unharmed. The chakra threads for them came out of his chest. The thing I noticed was that Sasori had a trickle of blood from his smirking mouth. "What's wrong?"

"You're bleeding? But you were a human puppet. You can't bleed?"

"Then obviously I'm not what I was before. I had to start over." start o. . . what? "But I still have this. . ." He performed a summoning as the smoke revealed. . . Sasori. The OLD Sasori. The puppet. Above it, was the rest of his famed 100 puppets. Even the defensive Hiruko puppet was there. "So how are your chances now?" He made sure his sand caught my attention as each puppet gained the benefits of the sand armor.

"I thought that the sand armor drained your chakra?"

"If it used my chakra, I'd be dead supporting all these puppets. It helps when a subjugated tailed beast fueling it instead."

Well, that's new. . . The puppets all charge forward at me.

. . .

The beast controlling my body pinned Hidan into the ground. The immortal laughed as he used his tailed beast power to blast us, did I just say us?, off. The beast then channeled its black chakra into raw powered attacked, countering the tailed chakra cloak's power. The beast's power actually overwhelms Hidan's beast as it blasts the immortal into the ground. Hidan whips his scythe in a mad spree, but the beast blocked the attacks with the black bone wings. It charged through, taking a chunk out of Hidan's chest. Hidan rolled to his feet with an evil smile. The wound started to heal, but the beast tackles him through several buildings.

Point? Hidan didn't stand a chance. Whatever was taking me over was straight whooping his ass. Hidan still managed to power back, but he was clearly on the losing end. The beast grabbed the immortal and tossed his away like a bitch. Before it can chase after, Jugo lands in front of it, now covered in mutations. He catches the beast and pushes back against it. "Stop Shinzo!"

The beast snarled as it through Jugo away. Jugo's arm pumped out chakra as he rocketed back and punched it across the jaw, launching it back. "FIGHT IT SHINZO! Before I can't fight it anymore."

I take that to heart as I force my will back into my body.

ENOUGH! We've won. I'm taking this back!

_So naïve._

The beast fought my control, but I still pushed through. That opened an opportunity for Jugo to grab the beast and restrain it.

_They say the hardest thing to do is to go against your homeland. I see no problems with it myself._

The beast roars with new power, launching Jugo off. Jugo transforms into a new form, a final form, as he fights the beast. . . but he still loses out. The beast picks Jugo up and slams him down. The beast has him pinned. The wings on the beasts back start to fold and glow white and black. The yin and yang chakras. . .

_Goodbye, homeland. _

NO! I force my will in again as I veer the beast to the side as it releases its attack. My vision blinds in white before clearing.

I look down, seeing my own hands and my body drained. I look down tired, finding Jugo. . . who is now missing his left arm and shoulder. The wound was sealed shut, so he did not bleed much, but he was fatally injured. "No. . ." I fall to my knees. Suigetsu and Karin land with us. They look stunned at the damage to Jugo. "Karin. . . heal him."

"Okay." She answers as she goes to him. Suddenly, a scythe is thrown in as Suigetsu parries it away.

"HA! Too bad that other form is gone. I wanted to make my tribute." Hidan came back, although his beast cloak was only half formed with no tail anymore. "So, what you little shits have for me now?" He charged and swung his scythe.

. . .

"Wind Blade!" I sent several slashes in Kakuzu, but he regenerated the damage. It did slow him down so I could leap over him. "Air Palm!" I blast his back, knocking him off balance. Upon landing, I charge in with most hand signs. "Earth Style: Mud Wall!" The ground above where I stepped raised just as Kakuzu whipped his arm around, smashing through the wall. His other arm extended up at me. "Wind Style: Air Bullet!" I send a single piercing shot of wind to clash the fist. The fist stops and retracts to Kakuzu. I come down and slam a kick into his shoulder.

Kakuzu grunts in pain, but flares the red chakra around him into a two tailed cloak before clotheslining me away. I land with Hiyori again, who wasn't fairing well against the one tail masks. Each had a one tail cloak around them. They blasted her puppets back despite her pitting them in matches they were suited for. I got up. "Time for mom's signature. . ."

Hiyori turned to me, enraged. "You have next to NO chakra left thanks to you using most of it to rip that guy's heart out!"

I ignore her. Kakuzu charges, but it kicked back by Shisui. "I'll hold him. You charge the attack." I nod to him. I wonder what he's been doing the whole time. . .

Shisui disappears, then reappears behind Kakuzu, blasting him from behind with a fireball.

"So he was setting up his seals. He's damn fast without em if he did it that quickly." I crouched down into the stance for the jutsu. Both hands to my right hip as if they were holding something that wasn't there. I charged my remaining chakra into it. I looked back into the fight as Shisui slammed Kakuzu into the ground. Shisui then teleported away. I heard him to my side. "NOW!"

I nodded. "Vacuum Pressure Air Palm!" My wind aura further funneled wind into the blast as my hands go forward, releasing a massive blue wave at Kakuzu. The area Kakuzu stands at. I scowl. I saw what happened. I look to Hiyori, who slumps.

"I couldn't keep it away." She says, feeling defeated. We look to the debris as the thing that took the hit was the fire mask. It's body was mutilated as it fell and started to die.

Kakuzu looks at it, then to us. "I can make one last use of it." The fire heart's chakra cloak is sucked into the mask as it releases all the chakra it has in a single fire blast into the sky. Kakuzu held his arms out as his wind and lightning hearts rushed into him. His tail count was now at four, his skin starting to rip off. The tendrils that were now pouring from his body were covered in blood red chakra.

His new form as now a blood red mass that barely resembled him in shape as the fireball earlier brings in storm clouds. The masks, wind and lightning, both call power to the storm. "Lightning will strengthen the storm clouds. My wind will direct the bolts back down. I will strike you down as a god." He says. "DIE!" Several lightning bolts appear in the sky as they all direct and close in on us. . .

. . .

Sasori's puppets close in. I still have Hikari's gift, but I had next to no chakra to use with it. The puppets get within ten yards. . . before running into a giant wall of wood. "What?" The wood wall cuts the puppets off as dozen's of familiar figures jump in with spiraling chakra in hand.

"RASENGAN BARRAGE!" all the puppets at the front line are blown away as Naruto lands in front of me. I look to my right, seeing a man with brown hair and a head protector.

"Just in time." I turn to see Kurotsuchi, holding Roshi. "They had already come by your clone. They kept Kabuto away from him." I looked behind her as Sakura was directly behind Kurotsuchi, healing Roshi.

"How did they-"

"We were tracking Itachi Uchiha." The obvious jonin said.

Naruto came back to me and playfully punched my arm. "That was until Hinata saw your all's battles. We all split up to help out."

"Battles? We?" I questioned.

. . .

Hidan's scythe was caught. It was caught with another scythe. A black one. A man with silver hair, glasses, golden yellow eyes, and a white trench coat stood there. "Well, isn't this interesting. An S class criminal picking on children. Quite pathetic if you ask me." He spoke in such a bored voice.

Hidan scowled. "Who the hell are you?"

"Hm? Oh, I don't think we've had the pleasure. . . and I don't feel like having it. I won't give you my name."

Hidan rears his scythe back to strike. "Arrogant little-" His movements are stopped by two black snakes make of ink. Someone familiar finally came. Sai landed behind Hidan from above. Hidan looked down to see insects crawling on the ground towards him. I looked to find some guy in a VERRRRY suspiciously concealing jacket.

"Who's the arrogant one?" The silver haired man spoke.

I took this chance. I whispered to Karin and Suigetsu. "Grab Jugo and run. . ."

We all jumped away from the impending battle.

. . .

The lightning bolts all struck. . . something. The lightning bolts all split and went wildly in all directions. The flare blinded us at first, but when it cleared. I cracked a smile. I turned and found that Shisui was gone. But I looked back. "Bout time you guys got here."

"Sorry. I tend to be late." Kakashi stood with his arm still sparking from the lightning. To his left stood Kiba. To the right, stood Hinata. "The grown up is here now. Let me take this."


	23. Victories New additions

"Naruto? That you?" I ask. I look between Naruto, Sakura, Roshi, Kurotsuchi, and the brown haired jonin.

"Yeah. I'll take him from here." I make a motion to stop him before The brown haired man stops me.

"Hold up. We'll let him go first." I look at him questioningly.

"And you are?"

"Yamato. Now, what about the enemy do we know?" He asks.

I think back on the whole fight. Sakura answers first. "I saw him die! How is he back?" I shake my head, showing I don't know before she continues. "He's an expert puppet user. He can use up to 100 puppets or varying weapons and uses. He can also use human puppets that retain the abilities of the person they're made from." Then she sees the Sasori puppet in front of Sasori himself. "He's using his own body? How is. . ." She trails out. That's where I take over.

"Apparently, he doesn't mind supporting the fact that he died. He's using his old body since somehow he got a new one. The new one isn't a full puppet body, but he makes up for that by having the Shukaku inside of him." Every flinches at that. "He has the Kazekage's famed ultimate defense although his sand ability is only on a level to disguise attacks and armor his puppets, making them incredibly hard to destroy." Sakura gapes a moment but doesn't find words.

"Okay." Naruto says. "Guess I'll have to take my measure." He put his hands into his sign. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" One one side of the battlefield stood Sasori with approximately 80 puppets. The other side contained about 100 Naruto clones. The real one stood still as his clones leaped into battle with the puppets.

. . .

"Kakashi, are you sure you want to face him? Four tails of beast power with his elemental combinations is going to be difficult." I state.

"It'll be fine. His lightning attacks won't phase me."

He still has earth and wind to fall back on, but I don't voice that concern. "Hinata, what are you guys doing here?"

She explained that they were all selected to find Itachi Uchiha after the confirming rumors that Sasuke had split from the snake. Hiyori gathered her puppets back up as I took a combat stance with Kakashi and Hinata.

"Two of my puppets only have enough chakra to use one more attack. Kaname is still open for his uses."

Kakashi gives a quick look at this group. "Hiyori, Hayato. I want you two to stay around to use one attack combination before chasing after the man that was with you."

He wants us to go after Shisui? How did he- right, Hinata would have seen him with her Byakugon. . . "Right,but can you hold out after we leave?"

"If you try to stay after that, YOU'LL go into chakra exhaustion, and Hiyori will have to fall back on her jutsu and close combat, which isn't that bad, but not for this opponent. You'd hurt more than help." Damn, his logic is, well, logical.

"Alright, what's the plan?" Hiyori asks excited to get another one over on Akatsuki.

"Hinata and Hayato will block the first attack, then counter attack, putting him on the defensive. Hiyori, before he puts up a third move, do what you can to limit his ability and movement. I'll administer the final blow." We all nodded as Kakuzu prepared to attack.

. . .

Well, that wasn't fun. We rushed through the trees as Suigetsu hauled Jugo's ass along. Karin led us through the trees in the direction where Sasuke was fighting. That was until a massive explosion roared surprisingly close to us. A giant blast appeared, towering over the nearby mountains as the shockwave hits and rocks all the trees around us. We barely hold our ground until the blast is gone.

"The hell was that?!" Suigetsu yelled as Karin seemed stressed.

"Sasuke is gone!" That was definitely not the news we wanted. I took charge.

"Suigetsu, prepare the summoning that Sasuke had planned for you. Karin, lead us away from the enemy. I'll take Jugo." Suigetsu hands Jugo to me as we rush to find a safe place, hoping Sasuke was fine.

. . .

Another wave of clones were completely wiped out. Naruto simply stood there as the third wave of clones he sent battled the remaining puppets. Sasori was now around halfway to a third of his original puppet force's size. The sand armor proved to make the puppets mostly invulnerable to basic attacks. The clones had to resort to Rasengans, but the puppets also had superior reach with their weapons. The third wave of clones was beaten back as Naruto stood in the exact same spot as before.

"Are you not going to do anything else?" Sasori asked impatiently. "I don't like to wait."

Naruto grinned back at him. "I think I got you." He then made eight clones. He positioned himself with two others. Three clones stepped forward as they put their hands together.

"What. . . is that?" I ask. A high pitch wine sounded in the air as a spiraling shuriken shape of chakra spun in the clones' hands. He smiles as one of the clones rockets forward with the new attack. The two clones run behind him as they charge.

"Cute." Sasori speaks out as his numerous puppets close in on the clones. The two behind parry and kick several puppets away as the clone holding his new attack hits. However, the technique disperses before activating as the puppet it hit dispatches the clone. We all looked to the real Naruto, who scowls. Then he begins the same technique with two of his clones. The other set of clones get in front.

Sasori seems unimpressed as his puppets charge. All the left over clones rush forward to intercept the puppets as the real Naruto rushes in with the technique. One clone tackles and holds a puppet up as the real Naruto jumps over the puppet. "RASENSHURIKEN!" He yells as he crushes the technique into the puppet. Sasori smirks.

"Great. You used your technique on a puppet. Big d-" His eyes widen at the attack spirals and propels the puppet with it as it torpedoes towards Sasori. "Shit!" He jumps into the air with his puppets as the Rasenshuriken hits the ground below him. . . before detonating.

GOD DAMN! The entire area erupts in a dome of spiraling wind chakra. The attack's pressure starts to push most of us back. I barely register what's going on as several puppets rocket to the sides from the shock wave. Yamato jumps up and catches Naruto as the shock wave ends, but the dome of energy remains. All we can tell is that whatever is in the center is getting destroyed.

Finally, the attack ends. We look as a mass hits the ground in the center of the crater. However, we didn't like what we saw. It was the Hiruko puppet. Yes, it was completely shredded for the most part, but it combined with sand armor possibly meant. . .

"That was some attack!" Sasori rips free from the ruined remains of the defensive puppet. He was bleeding however, having not entirely blocked the hit, but he still seemed able to fight. "That move is a close range attack, is it not? The propelling motion before detonation carries the target a safe distance away so the user is not hit. . . You used the propelling function along with my puppet to make a ranged attack to catch me off guard." He seemed utterly impressed. "We underestimated you." He glared at us for a while. "And I can see that this is not to my advantage to keep fighting." Sand came from the ground and covered the red headed Akatsuki member. Sand also covered several specific puppets as they go into the ground, disappearin.

"We won?" I asked. I looked at Naruto, who was grasping his right hand.

"Guess so." He winced in pain as Sakura tended to his arm.

Yamato stepped forward. "We should go to Kakashi's position. His fight will be the longest."

. . .

"DIE!" Kakuzu yelled out as he sent a giant blast of wind and lightning together. Hinata and I stepped up.

"ROTATION!" We both yelled as the combined defense parries the attack to the sides. Kakuzu wasn't finished as his tendrils and arms charged with the four tailed cloak all extend towards us with lethal velocity. Hinata stepped in. "Air Palm." She sent two air palms to block all the tendrils. The arms still came through as I charged at those, both arms blurred and obscured with wind chakra. I caught both arms with my hands as the attacks in both arms ignited.

"KAZE KUJO!" Ordinarily, this attack was used as a punch with one arm. The attack explodes out of both hands, launching the tailed beast cloaked limbs back along with a shock wave that hits and sends Kakuzu back. Kakuzu skids to a halt however, charging a super powered wind shot. As soon as the shot is launched, the Yama puppet steps in, launching fire blasts from its legs, flame blasts from the arms, and the thermite/ ash cloud combo launchers from the shoulders.

The massive fire based barrage overwhelms the wind attack as flames threaten to engulf Kakuzu. In response, he roars in his tailed beast power, the roar actually stopping the fire assault. Kakuzu then starts gathering red and blue chakra together into a smile black ball at his mouth. . .

"Hiyori!" I yell. She was already on it.

"INFINITE DARKNESS!" The Kaname puppet rushes in, casting the technique on Kakuzu, who now thrashes his head and attack back and forth. The puppet falls back away as Kakuzu continues to charge his new attack. Hitsuguya then appears. "CRYSTAL ICE FORTRESS!" The puppet releases the last of its chakra to build a massive fortress of ice containing Kakuzu inside, but the power could still be felt.

That's when Kakashi's trap hit. I peered into the fortress with my Byakugon, seeings Kakashi rip from the ground using the head hunter jutsu. He had chidori in hand as Kakuzu began to release his technique. . .

The ice fortress shook apart. Everyone now seemed surprised by what they saw. Only I caught was happened. The ball of energy disappeared. It was just gone at the same time the chakra flow in Kakashi's left eye flared. Kakashi now stood with his chidori in Kakuzu's heart. The beast of a man still had the four tailed cloak, but it seemed to be subsiding.

Kakashi ripped his hand out and jumped away before Kakuzu could swipe at him. The semi-immortal hunched over, coughing up blood as the wound healed and a portion of the tendrils, along with a mask, disappear into the body. A tail goes with it as the four tail cloak breaks, leaving a regular Kakuzu with a three tail cloak around him, breathing heavily.

We regrouped. "Okay, Hiyori and Hayato can go." Kakashi states.

"But-" Hiyori tried to argue, but I grabbed her. We needed to find Shisui. She understood my look as we both answered. "Yes." With that we left him to face the weakened Kakuzu.

. . .

We landed in a clearing. We were near a large town that we'd be able to blend out chakras in, so we could hide after getting Sasuke. I hauled Jugo and leaned with a tree as Karin applied medical treatment to Jugo. Suigetsu unrolled the scroll he had before slamming his hand into it. "SUMMONING!"

HOT DAMN that snake is huge. A giant bloodied purple snake with blue eyes lands in the clearing as Sasuke walks out from behind it. What the hell happened to HIM?! He was incredibly injured. The snake seemed to still be alive as well. "How. . . dare you." It coughed blood. "Using me as a shield. I curse you to your grave, human!" Sasuke just stares at it, no doubt applying a genjutsu to silence it until it bleeds out to die. He then proceeded to fall over unconscious.

"Sasuke!" Karin yelled. We could tell he was fine, but we were all screwed up from that. We needed to regroup. . .

. . .

WHACK! Hiyori and I were smacked upside the head as we went through Shisui's trail. We looked up with sore heads to see Kazuya sensei. "Yo."

"What the?" We questioned. "We're you back there fighting as Akatsuki member?"

"He was well worn down and overwhelmed by us." He replied dryly. "I went after you two while everyone else converges on Kakashi's fight with Frankenstein." He then looked to the side lazily. "Besides, it's not the real members. The one I beat. . . his face came off to reveal a different man. The other one is likely the same."

"That again." I say serious. "So why are you here anyway? You aren't part of the leaf's track Itachi mission." I ask.

He whacked me with the butt of his scythe again. "Because I was wondering what deep pile of trouble my idiotic and rash students had gotten into." He never showed emotion. Just a lazy robot voice.

Hiyori rubbed the spot as she spoke. "Can we just go? We can explain on the way." Kazuya excepted that as we continue on our chase. We sped off until we started closing in on a large town.

"Do you see him yet?" Kazuya asked after being informed of the situation. I shook my head.

"No. I see the team that was working for Sasuke. I. . ." I tunneled my vision into the apartment holding five people. "Sasuke is with them."

. . .

'Kakuzu' now laid on the ground dead. The face peeled off to reveal someone else entirely. Around the body stood myself, Naruto, Sakura, Sai, Shino, Kiba, Hinata, Yamato, Kakashi, Kurotsuchi, and Roshi who was still unconscious. We got the introductions out of the way.

"What now?" Sakura asked.

"Firstly, we need to get Roshi back to the Stone." I state. I look to Kurotsuchi. "Take him back."

"WHAT?! What will you be doing?" She was angry, but I didn't care.

"You heard them. My brother is with Sasuke. I'm going." I looked at her with half closed eyes. "I'm not a stone ninja. My loyalty is to my family first. Take Roshi back and give Onoki my thanks for letting me stay." She tries to argue more, but is cut off by Yamato.

"That. . . would be problematic. We shouldn't send her alone with the knocked out jinchuuriki."

Kakashi nods and looks to Sai. "Your birds can get her there faster and let you catch up." Sai nods as Kurotsuchi fumes her anger, but follows the order. She hopped onto an ink bird as Sai took her and Roshi towards the stone village. She then spat at us.

"Being helped by the leaf. . . I'm insulted."

"The usual term for this situation is a thank you." Sai replies with a smile as they lift off.

"okay. Now that's one problem taken care of." Kakashi chirps out happily. "Next?" He looks to Kiba, who looks confused a moment.

"O-oh! I got Sasuke's scent. It leads in a completely different direction that the others had gone." We all nodded to each other.

"Well, Hayato, Hiyori, and Kazuya are already well ahead after those four. No doubt Sasuke will regroup with them, so to be sure, we will follow Sasuke's scent." Kakashi waited for the nods until we followed Kiba.

. . .

Just down this hallway. We had found the complex Sasuke's team was hiding in. We walked through the halls towards the room. I hold my arm up to halt Kazuya and Hiyori. Sensei seems to understand immediately as Hiyori looks confused. I walk to the door alone. I knock on the door. "Candy gram!"

I duck right with a smirk on my face as the giant oversized blade ripped through the door in an attempt at a head shot. The blade retracts inward as the door opens, revealing.

"Oh, it IS you, Suigetsu!" I smile. The Hozuki clan member seems dumbfounded as I straighten up. I gesture for Sensei and Hiyori to come forward.

"What th-HEY! The hell are you guys doing here?!" He seemed almost nervous as he looked at Kazuya. "Especially him. . ."

"We came for several reasons." I said. "Where's Sasuke?" Suigetsu didn't move at that.

"You're not touching him."

Hmm. That didn't sound inviting. "Okay. How bout this? Where's Shinzo?" Suigetsu seemed equally adamant about not moving. I could see with my Byakugon that Sasuke was asleep in a bed beside an unconscious man with orange hair. The girl stood by the two with a kunai out as Shinzo walked to the door. He came around and pulled Suigetsu aside. It was easy to tell that Suigetsu answered the door purely because he was in the best shape.

"You rang?" He said calmly. "I already know why you came to me. Why does Sasuke Uchiha concern you?"

"Because. . . my name is Hayato Uchiha."

. . .

Uchiha? So this guy was related to Sasuke? That's would explain the interest, but doesn't explain his goal. Karin sounded behind me. "Impossible! The only two Uchiha that are still alive are Sasuke and Itachi. Orochimaru didn't even find anything about another one!"

Before I could respond, another voice came in. "He can speak to me if he wishes." Sasuke. . .

A heavy sigh is all I step away with Suigetsu, letting the three Mist ninja inside. Hayato came in with a smile. "Sup?" Was all he said.

And he got the reaction we all thought he'd get. An emotionless stare from Sasuke.

Hayato spoke again with a sweat drop. "Okay, maybe that wasn't a good start."

"You are no Uchiha." Sasuke sounded almost insulted. He glared at Hayato. "Your eyes are not mine."

Hayato chuckled a bit before replying. "Well, you're half right." Sasuke then had a look of real surprise as we all looked to Hayato. White Sharingan? "I contain Hyuga and Uchiha within me. The bloodlines fused. Although, if you're all about purism, look to Hiyori." He turned to Hiyori who seemed to be so nervous she could only smile awkwardly. Sasuke seemed to consider this.

"What is your goal here?" He asked. The adult man, Kazuya, responded.

"Family matters, I guess. It's something I'm not familiar with, but they apparently came on the wishes of another Uchiha." Sasuke grunts.

"It can wait until after I face Itachi." He cut off Hiyori from talking. "After all, if I die, at least the Uchiha clan can still survive." He looked at Hiyori when he said that. "Until Itachi is dead, I don't care about anything else." Hayato smirked at that.

"Fine. We'll go with you until then." Kasuya and Hiyori both stopped to look at Hayato. "I have my own issues to bring up with Itachi."

Great. More tag-a-longs.


	24. Uh, Tobi?

Wow. This place got nuked. Kiba led us in Sasuke's direction, but we were halted at crater about a mile long. "So, who wants to guess who Sasuke's opponent was?" I say with a smirk. Kakashi seemed to scowl as he turned to Kiba.

"I don't have anything. What about you?"

"Nah. Sasuke's scent ends right here at the center of the blast." Everyone stays silent for a while.

"Then we go after the other guys." Naruto stated.

"They're long gone. We'd need to use another method." Shino was the voice of reason. We had taken a day to follow Sasuke's scent to the crater, we lost everything else.

"Okay." Naruto said with his determined expression. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" The entire crater lit up as over 1000 clones appeared and scattered. Kakashi nods as he adds to it.

"Summoning!" With a puff of smoke, a small pack of dogs appear. He looks to each of them and to Kiba. "We'll go in all directions. We'll find him. When we have a sign, just dispel one of Naruto's clones." They all nod.

They all move, but I couldn't bring myself to move yet. "Deidara. . . Should tell Onoki." I left after voicing that thought.

. . .

"Sasuke, are you gonna hurry your ass up?" Hiyori yelled, prompting a death glare from Karin.

"Don't talk to him like that! He'll move when he pleases!" The redhead turns to the Uchiha in question. "Maybe I should come rest with you." She was so desperate for him. Shinzo rolled his eyes at her flirting, although I noticed that she smiled at Shinzo. . . was she making him jealous? Eh, I'm already involved with getting Hinata's love life together. I'll stay out of this one. . .

"You have a game plan?" I ask.

Sasuke sheaths his sword. "I'm ready." He walked out of the room as we all followed.

. . .

Ugh. Everything looks the god damn same in this god damn forest! My clones hadn't come up with any results. "Sasuke. . ."

We'd been searching for hours. I cued my radio. "Anyone have anything?"

"What?" Kiba.

"I said, anyone have anything now?"

"God damn, I'm so sick of answering that question!" Sakura.

"Half of you all have smelling and tracking techniques. I don't have shit! Don't bitch at me cause my clones aren't gonna just sit here and play with our-" I got cut off, thank god.

"Naruto!" Shino. . . . "Okay, my bugs made sure Hinata was still conscious." Several sighs of relief sounded. I didn't get it.

"I-I'm okay."

"Wait, did something happen to you, Hinata?!" I asked panicked.

"Idiot. . . We'll let you know when we find something, okay!" Kiba again.

Ugh. I hate waiting. Suddenly, a memory hits me. . . A clone nearby just got taken out. I rush to the location. Only one thing stood out for it. The Sharingan. I land. "SASUKE!" I call out.

A figure steps out from the shadows. "Don't panic. I'm here to talk." A calm voice sounded.

I snarled as I took my kunai out. "Itachi. . ."

. . .

"We're here!" We all land atop several roof tops. Karin straightened her glasses as she scanned the area. "Someone's up ahead."

We all went into combat positions. I hovered my hands over my scrolls, waiting for the attack. . .

…... "HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY GUUUUUUUUYS!" A loud infantile voice screamed. We all fell on our asses from the jump scare to find a head sticking out of the ground between all of us. The head had a spiral mask. The rest of the man suddenly jumped out of the ground and onto a roof in front of us. "I've been waiting SO LOOOONG. You're all mean for making me wait!" He then looked to Sasuke before getting flustered. "YOU! YOU BEAT DEIDARA SENPAI!"

Sasuke just glared at him of course. We all looked back and forth with a few sweat drops. "Um, Sasuke?"

"He's a fool who was with Deidara." Sasuke answered. This made the man that much crazier.

"THE NAME IS TOBI MEANY!" The man, Tobi, then crossed his arms and huffed. "Get moving. My orders are to let Sasuke Uchiha through."

We all scoffed at him before trying to walk passed him, but half the roof we stand on explodes. Tobi laughs his ass off. "SILLY! Only Sasuke!" We all glared at the guy. Sasuke looks to us.

"Go ahead." I say. "We'll deal with ass clown here and catch up." I say with a smirk. Sasuke nods and jumps over Tobi, running up to a large palace style building in the distance. We all look to Tobi.

"NOW! TIME FOR THE REAL FUN!" Tobi straightens up and stands normal. "This is where the real fun begins."

The hell? New voice? "SHINZO!" Karin yells at me. I turn behind me to see some sort of plant. . . thing springing up behind me.

"SHIT! WHIRLING BARRIER JUTSU!" I activate the scroll to release the lines of explosive kunai to blast away the threat. I skid to a halt as I turn to see Tobi rushing me. I throw several kunai at him, but they pass right through. "The hell?"

"No you don't! Zeus Strike!" A lightning bolt hits where Tobi stood as Hayato landed with me. He then twisted around. "Suigetsu, behind you!" We all look to the Hozuki clan member. He turns as the air around him starts to twist and suck into a portal.

The water man turns into a large puddle on the ground, only losing a little bit of water into the portal technique. He starts to reform to slash at Tobi, but the sword passes through. "Nice dodge." Tobi says before roundhouse kicking the shark tooth man away.

"Water Dragon Jutsu!" Suigetsu yells, turning himself into a water dragon, attacking Tobi. The dragon passes right through as Suigetsu solidifies again, attacking and missing. Tobi phases through another attack before back handing the younger man away. "Damn it. JUGO!"

Jugo transforms his arm into a giant forearm. He pounds the ground, knocking Tobi off balance. He rushed in with another right hook, only to disappear into one of the spiraling pockets of air. Tobi chuckles before another portal opens behind him, letting Jugo out, only to be blown back with explosive tags. Jugo hit the ground hard, already in bad shape as Suigetsu made it to him.

Tobi turned his attention to me and Hayato. "Be careful." Hayato said. "He seems to have an interest in you."

I chuckled humorlessly. "Everyone always does. . ."

. . .

The door opened slowly as I stepped inside. The entire room filled with nothing but darkness. I walk in to the room, finding only a single stone chair with a man sitting inside, eyes glowing red. "Hello, Sasuke."

"Itachi. . ."


	25. The Masked Man

Karin hit the ground with a loud thud. There was no way around it. Tobi wasn't fuckin' around. Jugo was still recovering from other injuries. Karin was no unconscious. Suigetsu had already gotten his ass handed to him, but he was still up.

"Now." Tobi said, staring the last of us down. "I suggest you step away from the Kisaragi."

Kasuya sensei stepped forward. "Maybe you should give me a go before making threats." Kasuya pulled out a cigarette, lighting it with his fire chakra enhanced scythe. He then looks to me and Shinzo. "Hayato, use your Byakugon to monitor the man's chakra network. Be sure to let us know what part of his body he's using to make his jutsu." I nod. He turned to Hiyori. "Well? You still have blacky the puppet. Blind the guy." He still sounded bored.

Hiyori nodded, summoning her puppet. "INFINITE DARKNESS JUTSU!" Kazuya charged in as soon as she finished her jutsu. His scythe charged with lightning as he swung right through Tobi. The masked man proceeded to back kick at sensei, who blocked with his scythe. Tobi dashed in and tried to grab him as sensei threw his left hand forward to block while using one of his trademarks.

"Burst Palm!" The hands go through each other as Tobi runs through sensei, landing behind him. They both twist around as Kasuya attempts to slice through with fire chakra. It passes through. Tobi uses this attempt to go for another grab, however the scythe hits the ground beside the two, exploding. Surprisingly, the shock wave blows both away from each other.

"Hm. It didn't actually hit you, but at least you can be hit." Kasuya stated blandly. Hiyori was in shock.

"How did he break my. . ." I chimed in.

"Sensei, he broke the infinite darkness as soon as it occurred."

Kasuya nodded as he pulled the cigarette out, blowing smoke. "Yeah, I kinda guessed. What did you find in his network?"

The fuck if I know? I don't voice that though. "Well, first off, the right half of his body seems to have weird chakra in it. Like it's from a different type of chakra network entirely. The other problem. . . Every time he turns intangible, the chakra around his right eye flares."

"Dojutsu." Kasuya announced nodding. "Who are you?" He said to Tobi.

". . ." His silence was getting annoying. I spared a look at Shinzo, who seemed to watch impassively.

"Shinzo?" I asked. He shook from his stupor and responded with a 'huh?'

He then straightened up. "You all didn't notice did you? Every time he turned intangible, the parts of his body didn't sound. If the top half of his body couldn't be touched, there was no breathing. The bottom half? No foot step sounds."

"Listening with sound?" That's how Shisui sees. "You use that. . . um. Echo seeing right?"

Shinzo slumps, looking at me like an idiot. "Echo Vision, and yes." He looked back to Tobi. "This means he can't attack and defend at the same time. If we can't touch him, he can't touch us." Hm, Shinzo has a few tricks we could learn. I smirk. Tobi still stood there patiently for us.

"Are you done analyzing me? It won't help." Our surroundings instantly blurred at Tobi disappeared completely.

"GENJUTSU!" Kasuya sensei yelled as each of us cried out 'RELEASE!'

I was the first out, using my sharingan as Tobi tries to rush past me to Shinzo. "Wind Aura!" I rocket towards Shinzo in a race of speed. Shinzo was still breaking the genjutsu, so had to do something. "SHINZO! SHIELD!"

The ninja tool master summoned a shield from his sash and guarded. Tobi almost beat me to him, but I jumped between them. "Gentle Leaf: Spiral Hurricane!" Chakra emitted from me as I spun in place like in the Rotation technique, however I placed all that power behind my kick, bashing Shinzo away from Tobi while spinning to attack Tobi.

The masked man stopped as the kick phased through him. He charged in for a grab as I whipped my left hand out. "Wind Blade!" The wind slash went through his body as he went right through and behind me. I face my right palm back. "Air Palm!" The attack smashes the ground where Tobi stood, but the man disappeared. "What?!"

Then I saw him coming down from above. Shit. . . I throw both hands forward while pushing myself back with my wind aura. "Double Air Palm!" I use all three wind techniques to blast me away just before Tobi could get me. He then looked up at me before another voice rang in.

"Hayato, close your eyes." I slammed em' shut before hearing. "Ninja Tool: Justice Spear!"

. . .

"Ninja Tool: Justice Spear!" I unravel the scroll as it releases a shining light, blinding everyone in front of me, namely 'Tobi'. I smile as the tool then fires a spear out directly at my opponent. I could tell Tobi was blinded, but he still tried to dodge, having predicted an attack of some kind. The spear clips his cloak, ripping it a little. He stopped, trying to regain vision as rush with a sword.

However, I went right through. I landed as I felt his grasp on my arm. I smile as the scroll in my off hand activated. "Ninja Tool: Eternal Mail Binding Jutsu!" Several chains whip out of the ground, wrapping around Tobi. I felt an air of relief as I got up to stare at him. "Try disappearing out of that! Those chains suck in the chakra of the captor. Whatever jutsu you use is useless. Struggling is also useless of course." I smirk, feeling that I won.

"Hmph. You think it's that easy?" Then 'Tobi' turned into a pure white man with greenish hair. He looked slightly like Zetsu. "Hello!"

What?! I then felt a hand smack down onto my left shoulder. "Seal. . ."

. . .

Shit! The white man covered in the chains was then pulled into the ground by Zetsu while Tobi had just done something to Shinzo. "GET OFF!" I slam my knee into Tobi's right arm, launching him skidding on the ground. He did roll to his feet however. I glare at him, seeing what I hoped I didn't. "You're the sixth Uchiha I was told about."

Tobi chuckled as we glared, red Sharingan vs white Sharingan. "I accomplished what I needed to." He gripped his right arm with his left. "Completely lost feeling? I'll need this replaced." He then started to disappear into the ground as his voice changed back to the original Tobi voice. "BYE BYE, GUY!" He was gone.

I then looked around as I turned to look at Shinzo, who was now hunched over and shaking. "Shinzo, what's wrong?!"

"Get out. . ." He whispered shakily. What did he mean?

"Get out." I said stronger.

"Shinzo, what's going. . ." Karin, Suigetsu, and Jugo jumped in, followed by Hiyori and Kasuya.

"Shinzo, what is it?!" Karin got out before he screamed. He clutched his left shoulder with his right hand while grabbing his own head with his left.

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"

. . .

"I got the scent! Naruto has us on the right trail." Kiba exclaimed.

"Never doubt me. I've told you before, but you never listen!" Naruto was rather happy with the outcome.

"Can you get Shinzo's scent?" I asked. Kakashi answered.

"All my hounds are getting strong scents of them all. We'll find him easily." He did his creepy eye smile at me. That was when he and Kiba both were alerted. "Everyone stop! Someone is ahead of us. Hinata?"

"He's Akatsuki. I see the robes. Not one we've encountered before."

God damn it, I am fucking done with Akatsuki already. "Get your ass out!" I yell to the unknown threat. "So far I've gotten my ass handed to me in COMPLETELY unfair circumstances twice by you assholes, almost lost a friend, found out a friend's father died along with another friend, and now you're in the way between me and my brother. I really, REALLY don't have time for his horse shit right now."

Silence was all I got. After a minute, Hinata answered. "He's coming out."

A man with a spiral mask, an Akatsuki cloak, and short spiky black hair comes out hunched over like he's sulking. "Meany. I didn't even get to say hi yet, and you're yelling at me. It's like Deidara all over again." He sounded like a whiny bitch. I then noticed his right arm completely limp.

"Hinata, is something up with his arm?" I ask. She nods.

"The chakra network in his right arm is destroyed. It's useless. Only thing that could do that would be the Byakugon. . ."

"Hayato did that, then." Naruto seemed serious. He pointed to the man accusingly. "What did you do to Hayato?!"

The masked man waved his hand in mock surrender. "The meany with the super kick? He was with his beast of a brother." Okay, that's my breaking point.

I charge at him without thinking as I rush a few hand signs. "Iron Skin! Earth Style: Earth Glove Jutsu!" I attempt to punch the man's head off as I yell. "Tell me where my brother is!" I land the attack as I just pass through him.

What?! He grabs me by the back of my neck and tosses me back into the ground by everyone else. "What the hell?!" I yell as I see behind the man.

"Rasengan!" Naruto's attack from behind passes right through as he is grabbed and flung into the water in a nearby creek. Naruto quickly erupted from the water.

That's when the man decided to introduce himself. "Oh ho! I guess I'll introduce myself. I'm Tobi! I am to be your opponent. No one can pass. Nope nope."

Great. . .

. . .

Black chakra whipped around Shinzo as he transformed into what the others explained was his second curse seal state. Shinzo stepped forward, still gasping for breath.

"It feels. . . good." He said. Kazuya sensei stepped forward with me.

"Hayato, do any of your summons have the ability to undo whatever seal was done?" He asked.

"Eh, no. None of them are sealing experts. I've been doing a lot of training with seals lately, though. I can at least tell the level of the seal. Byakugon!" I use the vision of my eyes to see Shinzo's curse seal on his shoulder. "Hmm. . . Sharingan!" I activated my eyes fully to look at the seal placed over the mark. "An odd number seal. It's meant to unstably meld his and the mark's chakras which gives the mark full control essentially." I take a second look. "And it's not something I can unseal without Shinzo being completely down and out for a good five minutes. That's the difficult part. That's if I can even do it, too."

Thing is. . . I didn't think I could do it yet. Where the hell is Shisui?! Shinzo looked up at us.

"Good to get out and see the world." He smiled wildly as his golden eyes were now a darkened purple. The whites now black. His voice was slightly more maniacal. "Hello, I'd introduce myself, but. . . I have no name, nor a need for it since you will die here and now." He chuckled as we got into combat positions.


	26. Hayato vs Shinzo Sort of

Okay. Scary gray haired shinzo thing with bone wings and darkened purple eyes. . . . That's a thing. His chakra was now black. His skin dark gray. To top it off, black instead of white in his eyes. His voice was modified like a filter was put on it for high pitch and an echo. (Hollow Ichigo effect)

"Question?" I ask, knowingly putting an awkwardness in the opposing threat.

"Yes?" It said slightly annoyed that I didn't seem threatened.

"What up with the bones, eyes, skin, erm- let's just say everything." I pointed to each spot at I spoke.

The beast chuckled. "Humans are so ignorant. I am-"

"The curse mark." Jugo finished as the beast seemed more annoyed at being cut off. "Shinzo's has a whole consciousness involved with it. We still don't know why." We all nodded. Then we felt the chakra intensify as curse mark chuckled.

"Yes. . . do you feel fear?" We gave no response as its chakra started to mold around it. "It's quite admirable when you face your deaths so-"

"Interesting." Kazuya states while straightening his glasses towards to beast, interrupting it again.

"What the- I am THREATENING YOU-"

"Its chakra seems more resembled to tailed beast chakra. The fact that it has a mind is also odd. However, it still manifests as a curse mark. I wouldn't mind dissecting him for further details."

The beast flailed trying to get his attention yelling. "STOP INTERRUPTING ME!"

"Do you have a name." Hiyori asked as she took a few steps starting to study the beast.

"What the- no! I am fear incarnate! I need no name!. . . wait, why am I answering your questions, I'm gonna kill yo-"

"Are you conscious all the time? Or just when your power comes up?" Kazuya asks like a doctor asks questions to a patient.

"STOP STUDYING ME!" The beast finally lashes out with power, causing us to jump back, although still not really afraid even if we should be. "I'M THE MONSTER HERE! I'M THE BEAST- erm, CURSE MARK. . . THING! I'M YOUR KING!" The beast hunched over gasping for air after yelling at us. "God you people are annoying."

"Is that okay?" I ask mockingly.

"As a matter of fact, go fuck yourself!" The beast kicks off towards us as I activate my wind aura. I charge forward with hand signs going through.

"Mud Wall!" The wall comes up halting the beast. Seeing the beast behind the wall with my Byakugon, I prepare the next move. The seals for the technique I used on Kakuzu appear on my palms. I smack both palms onto the Mud Wall. Since the wall already had my chakra, I extend the pure chakra out from the other side, trying to enclose Shinzo's body to seal him.

Mistake. . . "Ninja Tool!" Oh fuck, he can use Shinzo's attacks. "Diamon Fortress!" From the ground below, a circular wall of diamond raises, shattering my Mud Wall to rubble while trapping me inside. I look up the tall fortress to see Shinzo staring at me from up above. His wings started to glow black and white. "Have a taste of my ultimate power. . ."

Well, damn. My sealing jutsu was still active as I slam my palms into the diamond. I barely seal away a new hole in the wall and escape before the diamond fortress explodes out. I skid to a halt as Kazuya lands beside me. "You're lucky that diamond fortress is so strong. It contained a large amount of the blast. Also, word of advice." He paused while I was struggling to stand. "After going through two fights in the last day or so, don't start out another fight with a trump card."

I smirk. "I got more." I touch two fingers from each hand just under the palm of the opposite hand. He touches the spot with two fingers as if checking he pulses in both arms. "Two prong seal release." I murmur as both hidden seals break, releasing some built in chakra back into my chakra network. I stand straight and take a deep breath before exhaling. "Ahhh, good to be back at 100%."

Kazuya raised his eyebrow at this. "Where HAVE you been the past few weeks? Better question, who taught this all to you?"

I didn't feel like bringing up my half brother yet. I looked to the beast as it stood against me. "I'll hold him. You guys move ahead."

"Why?"

I gestured in the direction Sasuke had gone. "Sasuke's using his ultimate attack. Get to him before anyone else does."

To confirm my prediction, the storm clouds in the distance all blast apart in one giant lightning blast. The shock wave even blows a gust of wind past us, being powerful enough to carry the distance. "I see. You want to be sure we get to him, and not someone else."

I just turn my attention back to 'Shinzo.' Then my head jerks back in the direction of Sasuke's fight. "He's still up."

"Who? Sasuke?" Kazuya asked. "It was his own atta- Itachi. . ." I looked grim at that realization. "If I end up fighting Itachi Uchiha of all people, I'm coming back for revenge on you for the hassle."

He rocketed away with the others in tow as I glared at the beast, who was also seemingly enjoying the fight in the distance. "The one who stopped my control before? If he dies then good riddance. As for you." He turns to me. "I think I'll kill you before going to make sure he's dead." He grinned maniacally.

This only made me laugh. "I doubt that. I'm faster than you, have better perception with the Sharingan, complete awareness with the Byakugon, and to top in off," I point the his chest with the few remaining scrolls. "you have next to no scrolls left!" I did everything to sound confident since I still needed to be careful against the guy.

He chuckled. This chuckle turned to a giggle. Then, a soft, venomous laugh. Finally, a loud cackle as he laughed his hardest at whatever joke I must have said. When he finally looked back at me, his face was one of pure hatred and malice towards me. "The Sharingan will be the first thing I erase from this world." He shuddered from existence, barely giving me enough time to turn and block a punch from behind.

The punch put a lot of pressure in, causing my feet to indent the ground. He definitely had strength. Durability was a given. . . but that's no problem for a Hyuga. "Rotation!" The attack presses the beast back, giving me room. Upon the technique's end, I leap forward. Gentle Leaf in action. "Three Strikes!" I move for three near simultaneous strikes. A right knee. A right punch. Finally, a left palm.

His wings covered him as all three hits give me a shriek of pain as a reward. The wings push back, knocking me back and off balance. The beast pushes through, spearing his shoulder into my gut through several trees and leftover buildings.

I bring both elbows down on two chakra points in his back while kneeing his gut to close another. His grip loosens enough for my hand to make it under with a familiar seal. This summons the large diamond wall chunk that was seal earlier, separating us further. "Air Palm!" I blast the diamond like a projectile into the beast. I skidded to a halt as the beast did the same, still in a haze from getting bashed across the face by Shinzo's technique.

I smile as I shudder out of existence. I reappear just under his chin, planting my foot firmly into his jaw and launching him into the sky. I appear behind him mid-air, attempting to deliver a roundhouse kick, but it is blocked by one of the bone wings. I work around it, grabbing the back of him, throwing him down into the ground. I spin as I descend down to plant my shin into his chest. "Heaven's Barra-" Oh shit.

The debris clears to reveal the wings glowing, about to send another large blast up at me. "HELL'S EXTINCTION!"

FUCK! I throw my arms to my side, using my most powerful wind attack. "Vacuum Pressure Air Palm!" I use the blast to rocket me to the side of the instant death move. Skidding to a halt, I turn to the beast, who sits patiently for my next move.

Mistake for him. "Half Rotation. Slicing Wind Blade Bombardment!" My body spins in place utilizing the rotation move. Wind emits from my body using the slicing sphere jutsu. My wind aura then takes the wind inward before releasing my signature wind blade slashes, except by the dozens and powerful enough to slice a tree apart with ease. All these work towards the beast with pin point accuracy while the beast seems more than a little shocked. "Suck it, Beelze- bitch!"

He takes another scroll from Shinzo's arsenal. "Ninja Tool: Twin Griffin Wing Jutsu!" The scroll summons eighteen ritualistic pikes, all of which move in a spiral of blade work as chakra emits from them, allowing them to clash with my enormous amount of wind blades. The pikes are broken through, seemingly an attack meant for overwhelming in close quarters, not a ranged defense, but it did its job as the beast appears at a safe distance while I stop my attack to glare at him.

I needed a way to end this. . . now. I looked around the battlefield for anything that might help, finding the chains Shinzo had originally used to try to end his conflict with Tobi. They still glowed with power.

Hmm. A possible plan. I look around the full battlefield, finally noticing something that wasn't there before. Seals were planted everywhere! I quickly checked for any other presences. . . none.

"Well, at least Shisui stopped by to leave me something to go off of." My pessimist fake out hid my relief well. "It'll do."

. . .

What's going on?

Where am I?

Darkness is all that greets me as I feebly attempt to move. I open my eyes to the rain falling from the sky, seeing nothing but darkness. Well, darkness in the form of flames. "Hn." I managed to look to the body next to me. A few select words echoed in my head. _I'm sorry. _

The last words from my brother. "Itachi. . ." My energy gave out as I felt myself going unconscious yet again. However, two figures made themselves known. From opposite sides of the battlefield, both rushed towards me as if in a race. I recognized one as Tobi, but the other didn't open his eyes, but wore traditional clothes, all black.

Both figures blurred as they closed the distance. Tobi reaching towards my leg. The newcomer reached both arms out towards my shoulder and Itach's leg.

My mind gave out as my sight went black. Just as I felt a grip on both my shoulder, and one on my leg.

Someone captured me. . . guess I find out who when I wake up.

. . .

"Water Clone Jutsu!" I made three clones. "Hold him off." The three clones took my gentle leaf combat stance before charging him.

Okay, that buys me about thirty seconds. I rush towards the chains. Upon quick glance, I find the scroll from which the chains were summoned. I grab the scroll. "SEAL!" The chains retract into the scroll as if sucked in by a black hole. Satisfied, I just needed to find a seal. The nearest bundle of seals was between a mess of trees. I look down to the bracers on my wrist, the ones designed to suck and store my chakra over time.

It's only been a few weeks most since I last used that. Not enough time has passed for it to matter much. I'll have to force it. "Ascended Wind Aura!" I burn 10% of my chakra to make it to the seals as I turn to find the beast walking slowly towards me.

"Heh! You intend for the trees to force close combat, which would let you use the Eternal Mail Binding Jutsu to stop me. HA! I see your tactic." His wings start to glow again. I smirk as he takes one more step.

"Almost right. So close." I say smugly. I slam the scroll down, using Shinzo's ace from before. "Eternal Mail Binding Jutsu!" I smile at him before adding. "Shadow Star Combo!" The chains disappear into a seal below it. They reappear whipping in different directions around and beside the beast. If you look from above, it was in the shape of a star, coming and going through different seals. They quickly retrict inward, wrapping the beast as the glow in his wings fades.

"WHAT?!" I didn't want to hear it. I used my ascended wind aura to blast behind him at blinding speed. My thumb, index finger, and middle finger tips glow blue as I look at the odd number seal atop the curse seal. "Three Prong Seal Release!"

The beast barely gets a shriek out as it's form shatters, leaving an unconscious Shinzo bound by the chains.

"Well, that took long enough." I spared a look towards Sasuke's battleground, finding it empty. "What?! Where is he?!" That was when the presence nearby made itself known.

"WATER SHARK SHOTGUN BARRAGE!" Didn't need to show me who did that. . .

By instinct, I grabbed Shinzo and sped away from the sharks with ease. Kisame landed a few feet away. "Great. One headache to another." I spat.

"Heh, Sorry kid. I'm not here to play. Neither is he." I seemed confused. What could he-

I clenched my teeth and hunched over. I looked down as my mouth began to leak blood. A long spear had gone clean through my body.

But how? The only people who know the Byakugon blind spot are people from Kono-

I knew answer before I even turned my head enough to see. "Tobi!" He ran past me, grabbing Shinzo and skidding to a halt beside Kisame. I try to move, only to fall to my knees. "God. . . damn it."

The Uchiha glares at me. "Thanks for taking him down for us. . . I didn't expect it from a half breed. Take care." He was in full Uchiha mode, no Tobi personality. He and Kisame disappeared into a spiral of space as my vision starts to black out. The last thing I hear before my body hits the ground is a yell. Naruto.

"Sakura, get him! It's Hayato!"


	27. Three Waking Migraines

Ohhhhhhh, why is everything spinning? I start to open my eyes to notice the one lit torch as a source of light. Okay, so I need to sit up and- OW MY BACK! I shakily make my way to a sitting position with a grunt as my eyes focus more to the light.

"Oh, you're awake." A calm, friendly voice sounds. "How are you feeling?"

I close my eyes and ignore him. After everything that just happened, I don't need to listen to anything.

"Silent brooder? Here I thought Itachi was the only one to do that." I open my eyes to glare at the man sitting by me. I look around finding that I'm in some sort of shack. A single window lets me see how dark it is outside. Pretty late.

"You speak as if you know him." He seems aware of my glare as he chuckles to himself.

"I'm surprised you don't know me." This time I take his features in. Shaggy black hair. His shirt has a symbol on the back. I knew it before he could finish turning around.

"Shisui Uchiha?!"

. . .

I wonder how Sasuke's doing. I wake up in a small bed in some hideout. There's a single torch giving light to the room. My body's horribly sore. God this sucks. I look around for my scrolls. Nothing. My sashes are still there, so there's that. Last thing I remember is fighting-

"Hello, young Kisaragi." AND THERE'S THE PAIN IN THE ASS IS!

My head whips up to see the masked man from before. "What the hell?"

He holds his hands up with a small chuckle. "Calm down, now. I already lost one quarry, so the other starting a fight is not an annoyance I want to tolerate."

Now, I was confused. I'm starting to think I ask too many questions. "Your quarry? Who the hell was the other?"

"Sasuke." He said plainly. "Although, an old player returned from the shadows to stop that capture. I did get Itachi's remains, so not a complete loss. I got you, too." He sighs dramatically. "But what to do, what to do. . ."

I smile. "Sasuke won? Good. Even better that he's out of your reach. Now, what the fuck am I here for?"

He looks at me, giving me a good look at his Sharingan. "I assume you've noticed by now that Orochimaru has been helping Akatsuki again."

Well, fuck. "So now you're delivering me to him?" I reach for my sash to summon a weapon.

He laughs mirthfully. "By no means! My deal with him is this: I help him acquire you and Sasuke. He helps Akatsuki in any way needed."

He seems overjoyed with my confused face. "Then why-"

"The longer you and Sasuke remain outside of his hands, the longer I get to use him as my pawn. I captured you as a curiosity. I studied a bit while you were out, and I had my fun. Now, I'll take you where ever you want to be next, and I ask you to stay out of Orochimaru's hands as long as you can please."

I couldn't help but laugh. "Orochimaru asks you to help him, and you do the opposite for your own gain. You even offer to help me." I calm a bit to push my luck. How much info get I get? "What happened with our group?"

He glared. "All over the place. Kisame and some of Orochimaru's presents attacked that group you and the half breed sent after Sasuke. Bipolar Jugo is currently in the custody of Konoha. The Uchiha girl is currently with the Uzumaki and Hozuki, last seen going towards the Grass."

The room was silent a while. "The scythe guy and Hayato?"

"Both in Konoha."

"What of my brother?"

He seemed more than ready for the question, answering instantly. "In the Stone."

What?!. . . . Of course, that's where he'd be. He had his history with Onoki. "Is there anything else you want with me?"

"Just ask where you want dropped off. Zetsu will take you." A half white/half black man thing came up from the ground at the sentence.

"Awaiting your destination." One voice spoke.

I glared at him. "My scrolls?"

"There are a few you didn't use, but I'm not giving you access to an armory for a refill."

Great. He's not stupid. "Fine. Give me my scrolls and take me to the Grass." I need to make contact with Kinvari sensei. Since I know Katto's location, I can fix all other issues, then go get him back. I don't know what the hell has his in the Stone, but I'm gonna find out.

Tobi chuckled. "If you say so." Why don't I like the sound of that?

. . .

_FLASHBACK _

"_Did you hear what happened at the Chunin exams?" _

"_What happened? I heard there was an invasion in Konoha!"_

"The third Hokage was killed. We just got word the fourth Kazekage is dead, too."

"I heard it was the Sound's leader who caused it, Orochimaru."

"No kidding!"

New traveled fast as I went through the streets. None of the Mist's genin had made it that far in the exam this year, so no harm was done to us, other than pride in that years candidates. I burst through the door. "Mom! Where are you at?"

"In the kitchen!" Was the only answer. I went through the house, walking past Hiyori, who fiddled with her wood. 

"_Hey, Hayato!" _

"_Huh? What are you doing?" I ask confused. _

"_I'm copying that weird puppet guy I fought in the Chunin Exams last year. It was such a cool style!" _

_My face deadpanned. "Yeah, for creepy people who love working with wood." I then take a thoughtful expression. "I guess it fits you well!" _

_I dodge a kunai. "YOU ASSHOLE! When I'm done, I'm making my puppet Yama kick your ass!" _

_I rush to the kitchen, meeting my mom. "Hey mom, did you hear about the leaf village?" _

"_Yes. . ." She went back to the food she was making. _

_"And one of the fighters was Sasuke Uchiha. . . He was apparently the prodigy of the year." _

_She seemed sad, although she forced a smile. "Some things don't change, I suppose."_

"Huh, what's that mean?" She shakes her head at me, but I continue. "Maybe I can meet Sasuke one day. He and Hiyori are the last full blood Uchiha. I'd like to know him."

She chuckled. "I wonder if he's anything like Mikoto." 

"_Who?"_

"Oh, nothing. I'm sure you'll meet him someday. Now, it doesn't matter to us. Go get ready for Kazuya's training."

"OHHH, BUT I HATE THAT BASTARD!" 

_WHACK. Mom stood over me with the frying pan she just hit me with. "DON'T CURSE IN FRONT OF YOUR MOTHER!" _

_End Flashback. _

"DON'T HIT ME WITH THE PAN AGAIN! PLEASE!" I blink my eyes several times, seeing a pink haired girl trying not to laugh. "Uh, hi Sakura. . ."

"I don't have a pan." I blushed at that. Then I looked around the hospital room.

"Um, what happened?"

She got up and made notes on a clipboard. "Well, I'll have to ask YOU about what happened at the time. I can just say what happened before and after. We were held up by that masked guy. Hinata confirmed you guys were fighting, that is you and Shinzo. When we got there, you were a hole short of your usual self."

I took the insult well enough. I'll have to remember to get her back for that later. "Next."

"I stayed back to heal you. Shinzo was gone, so Katto went back to the Stone until further developments occur. Sasuke was also gone, although there was a message left, but we can't decipher it."

I nodded at this. "Wait, what about-"

"Kazuya sensei and that Jugo guy are with us. Jugo came willingly. Kazuya informed us of an ambush by some edo tensai. The Sound Five."

"What? Where's Hiyori? The other two?"

"Kazuya said he told them to retreat during the fight. It really didn't go their way with Kisame there too. Especially after how the masked guy roughed you all up."

I winced at that. "So my sister is somewhere out there, and we don't know where?"

She sighed. "We're working on it."

I got up, only to immediately fall on the floor.

"IDIOT! You need to heal first!"

I grunt as I throw her away and struggle towards the door. "I need to see my mom. Something needs done."

. . .

"How are you even alive?" I speak up at my brother's old best friend.

Shisui chuckled and pointed to his closed eyes. "There's a clue for you, but that's not what I'm here for."

"What are you here for?" My voice went back to its usual monotone.

"Well, considering the fact that I know the secrets of Itachi, and I know someone them aren't perfect, I am set on fixing the broken parts."

I turned to glare at him. "explain yourself."

"The very second your battle was over, the. . .other. . . the one with the mask, attempted to snatch you up. I ASSUME he was there to use Itachi's secrets to turn you into a pawn for him. I didn't want that. As such, I mean to set you straight and nip the problem before it starts."

. . . "Itachi was a traitor. He killed the clan, and I killed him. I assume the man you speak of is this 'Madara Uchiha'. I will kill him too."

Shisui gulps. "You say that now. . ."

. . .

I come over a hill, seeing my destination. "You guys travel fast!" I complement the spiral masked freak and tree man as they disappear from my view. "Alright, time to make my reappearance."

I run down the road at top speed. I go for a solid ten minutes, until I see the main gates. I skid to a halt, sighing in relief. "Finally!"

"Finally what?" A stern voice behind me sounds. "My idiot apprentice." I whip my head around to find my master.

The smile on my face must have looked ridiculous. "Kinvari sensei!" I look to see the brown haired, red eyed best friend of mine. "REESE! What's up?" He wore black pants, shirt, and green chunin vest.

The response is more than a little heartbreaking. Reese hits me dead on the head. "WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN YOU SNOW HAIRED BASTARD!"

My eyes twitch as I punch him back. "How the hell is that a welcome home hello for your best friend, you piece of ass!"

We went into a full brown wrestling match with rock bottom's and people's elbows until a flash from Kinvari's eyes caught our attention. We straightened up and saluted to him over dramatically.

"Shinzo, we're taking you to the Kusukage." He said with authority.

I nodded. "Thanks. I need to tell him everything."

Reese added. "I call first dibs on know what's been going on. Our mission to guard the towns was classified as failed because you and Katto disappeared!"

The same day? Wait. . .

. . .

Karra, Kenjuro, and Kazuya were all three waiting for me to arrive. I stumbled to them, still adjusting to the bandages on my chest. I fall to a seat, having been helped here by Sakura and Hinata. "Thanks, guys."

"What are we doing, Hayato?" Kazuya asks bored.

I grunt in pain. "I want to find Hiyori, Shinzo, and Sasuke."

Everyone perks up. "Sakura, I want you to tell Naruto what we're doing as soon as we're done here." She nods. "Everything after that is family matters."

Kazuya speaks up as bored as ever. "If it's family matters, why am I here?"

"I want you to personally take a message to the hidden stone. They'll accept people from the Mist, but if we send someone from Konoha, they'll be hung from a tree."

"And when did I become delivery boy?" He asked, half annoyed.

"Well, you're the only non-leaf ninja here I trust to deliver a message to Katto." I turn to Hinata. I smile. "I'd like you and Neji to come with us, if he's here for it."

"U-um. Sure. Where are you going?"

Everyone looks at me. "This doesn't leave our ears. I know who has the best guesses as to where Hiyori and Sasuke are. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Shisui knows."

Kazuya, Karra, and Hinata go wide eyed. Sakura asked. "Who?"

"Shisui Uchiha." I say the name with pride. "mine and Hiyori's other half brother."


	28. A Controlled Puppet

"Welcome, Shinzo. We haven't seen you here in months." The Kusukage of the Grass sat with his chair turned to me, looking out the windows to the village. I stood looking at his desk, seeing various amounts of paperwork. He had just dismissed Kinvari and Reese, wanting to meet me one to one.

I scratch the back of my head nervously. "Hehe, yeah. . . A good deal of problems here and there, but I'm alright."

He turned in his chair with a smile. Kinvari has slicked back hair (like Aizen in bleach) with steeled blue eyes. His brother Sinvari who sat before me was a good deal more kind looking, his brown hair down to eye level with pale blue eyes. (Soul Society Aizen's hairstyle) He wore the standard Kage robes, with the exception of his kage color being purple, considering the main more appealing colors were occupied by the five great Kage. Kage of lesser villages kinda had to use the less appealing colors. Purple was not a color associated with grass, but neither was green with sand. . .

"Good, child. Now, full report." He commanded kindly, yet sternly.

"Well, my team was looking over the region like you said we should. It was fine until I had a run-in with this sage guy. He told me about a group of bandits that, since it was my job, I should take out. I went there, running into the sage's apprentice who was already dealing with the issue for me."

The kage before me nodded approvingly. "The Sannin Jiraiya. Most kind of him to let us know of them. Kinder of his apprentice to do the job for us out of principle. Go on."

I nodded. "Unfortunately, his apprentice was already fighting a bunch of mutated people, who I would later know as people corrupted by the Curse Mark made by Orochimaru. Naturally, I joined in and we kicked ass- um! We won, sir!" He chuckled at how informal I was getting.

"Ah, it's okay, child. No coincidence that the two Sannin had presences in the area. Jiraiya is legendary, but is also known for spying. Must have been looking into Orochimaru."

"Yeah. I learned that the hard way." Sinvari's expression hardened. "We fought off the lackeys and parted as friends. On the way towards my team, though, I was ambushed. This was taken up by Orochimaru himself. I was captured, and he placed this new version of Curse Mark on me." I turned to show him. He looked at it, appraising the seal.

"I see. You got away, right? Or this conversation wouldn't be happening." He stayed upbeat. That's what I liked about him.

"Sasuke Uchiha, who had used Orochimaru as a means to get stronger himself, made a deal with me. We escape the snake's clutches together and find our brothers. He, for reasons of revenge, and me, to be back with Katto. After his confrontation with Itachi, I came here to see how things were, and to see if certain people came through." He gave a strangely piercing look.

"Then?"

"Then go get Katto out of the Stone. I'm curious why he's there." I said matter-of-fact like.

His look softened. "So those kids who came through were the ones you wanted to find?"

I brightened. "Yes! Where did they go?"

He chuckled. "Well, they should be fine. They ran off from us at first sight. I'm assuming because Karin sensed us coming." What?

I was confused. "Why would she run? Even if she's been gone, this was her village, too."

He smiled at me. "Because she sensed our intent as well. Obviously, she would run."

Why did that not sound good. . .

. . .

"Man! Why did everyone disappear?! Hayato and Hiyori disappear when before we went to get Sasuke. Pervy sage leaves while we're out doing that! We get back with news of how Hiyori is gone! Now, Hayato's family along with Sakura and Hinata all go off somewhere! NOT COOL!"

Ugh. I'm so damn annoyed. "Hmm, ramen sounds very good right now." Then I slumped a bit. "But I'm broke. Iruka said he won't treat me until tomorrow."

I looked over at the interrogation building in the distance. "At least we captured someone who knows a lot about Sasuke." Something clicked. Maybe I could go visit the guy. "Time to meet my old friend's new friends!" I job excitedly towards the building.

. . .

I tensed at the uncomfortable atmosphere. "What did you say?"

"I mean if we had captured them, the Uchiha girl would have been a good asset. The Hozuki, I could give or take honestly. She, on the other hand, we tried for the most. They ran when she sensed the nature of our intentions."

"Wha- How- Why? What were your intentions." I looked close as I saw that weird look around his eyes again.

"Why, give them back to Lord Orochimaru, of course."

WHAT?! I was frozen. My mind worked into overload. This was one of the kindest people I knew through my life! Why would he work with that snake! Wait. If he was going to give them to him. . .

A low growl sounded in the back of my mind. The Curse Seal, I bet.

Someone hates Orochimaru like I do, I see.

The voice, surprisingly, answered.

_He's the first person on my list to kill after I get control again. Second is you. _

I didn't care about the threat at the moment. "Why? Why would you work with him?!"

He smiled sadly at me. "When did I have a choice?" That look. I saw a small, almost nonexistent shimmer.

"Wait! So-"

"We sent your team to that town, specifically to let him capture you. We also wanted to use the timing to classify Kinvari as a traitor, so we could kill him off. His power makes him a threat to Lord Orochimaru's control of the village, but that didn't go as planned."

My eyes widened, starting to put pieces together. "But Katto fell into the trap instead. . . THAT'S why he's in the Stone- HOW LONG HAS THIS BEEN GOING ON?!" I yell, my shock turning to anger. He snapped his finger as ten of our village's ANBU appeared in the room, swords drawn.

I remembered something Sasuke had said. He said Katto was fine. So I guess it makes sense that Sasuke would have run into him. "You want to know how long? Well, I'd say my first act under his control was giving him Karin." He said dully.

What? That was YEARS ago. All this time. I looked into his eyes again. The shimmer. I put my hands into a hand sign as each ANBU pointed their swords towards me. "RELEASE!"

Nothing happened. I noticed no difference in anything. But I expected that. What I didn't expect, was the black that had replaced the whites in Sinvari's eyes. "E-. . . Edo Tensai?" I said softly.

He frowned. "Things are depressing when you have no control over them." Then he smiled again. "Your friends have been chased into a trap coordinated by Danzo of the Leaf. I tell you this since I honestly hope you get out to help them, but Orochimaru controls me now." Then his look changed. I could tell his personality switches with Orochimaru's control over him changing him. "And thanks for letting us know where Katto was."

I don't move. I stare blankly at him while the blades around me point towards my vital spots. "How is Orochimaru able to control you? His jutsu were sealed away."

"I was put in place BEFORE his jutsu were taken away by Hiruzen Sarutobi." He answered.

That was the last thing I cared to know. It explained why he still had the ability to tell me whatever he wanted. I looked to each of the ANBU. I then count silently the scrolls I have left. Seven scrolls. Some of my most powerful that I'm too scared to use.

But Katto and Karin are in danger. I look up. "Thank you, Lord Sinvari. I'll be leaving now."

The Curse Seal flared into level one as I surged my chakra to upgrade my speed. All I needed was to activate one scroll. All ten enemies went for impalement. The answer was a series of metallic clangs.

Sinvari's eyes widened. "Your father's signature? I didn't think you were that desperate."

". . . Orochimaru has made me a very desperate man." I stood in place, my entire body covered in metallic material in blood red. Four blood red arms extended from just below and behind my real arms as the red seemed to armor my body. The only visible portion of my body is my eyes and bridge of my nose, with some of my white hair showing by my eyes. I blocked each of the swords simultaneously with my six arms. "Ninja Tool: Armor of the Blood God Asura." I throw all ten enemies back a few feet. I then activate the scroll in my left hand. I can't possibly win, fighting Sinvari along with his ANBU in the CENTER of the village. I just need to get away, but I'd rather run from three enemies instead of ten.

Sinvari comments again. "Those too?" Six swords appear in each of my six hands. Each sword has a black blade with a tell tale curve. The hilt on each sword lit up red with an identical seal. Finally, the seal appeared on my forehead, marking me as the seventh. "Even your father hesitated to use this."

I smiled under the cover on my face. "Ninja Tool: Swords of the Seven Deathly Hallows."


	29. Risk of Blood

"Oi, scary scar man! I need to see someone."

The death glare I got made me cringe. "My name is IBIKI, brat!" The guy straightened up. "Remember my name or next time I'll have someone go into your head and plant the damn name in! Now, who are you trying to see?"

I shuddered at the threat. "U-um, I wanted to see that one arm dude that was with Sasuke. . ." He glared at me. "Ibiki, sir!"

He smiled and chuckled. "That's better. Now, you're more than able to visit him. Hell, the only reason he's in such a high level cell is because he personally requested it. Go ahead." He let me through as I sighed in relief. "Scary scar man always freaks me out-" I look to see him glaring again. " I-I mean Ibiki freaks me ou- oh shit! I didn't mean-" He just walked away, leaving me standing with an awkward smile, sweating. "Thank god for small-" A kunai whips by me face, leaving a light scratch on my cheek. 'Miracles?' I finish mentally, turning to see the dark haired Anko, causing me to jump back scared. "CRAZY SNAKE LADY!"

She smiled. That's never a good thing. "You got Ibiki's name down before mine? Maybe I'm not trying hard enough. . ." She finished ominously.

"NO! No no no. You do fine, Anko!" I smile a big fake smile before becoming serious again. "Wait, why are you here? You torturing people now?"

She chuckled. "Sadly, no. I'm Jugo's watch keeper until further notice. You want to see him? I have to be present."

That killed my joy. I slumped a bit as I walked further into the halls. "Great."

We walk to a final room, the door covered in seal scrolls. We slowly opened the door, entering to find a chained up man with bright orange hair, his left arm gone. He looked up. "You're that one guy after Sasuke. What do you want?"

"Well, I felt like saying hi." I smiled.

He tilted his head, as did Anko. "Why?"

"Why not? You're Sasuke's friend, so I think you can be my friend, too." He seemed dumbstruck.

"Naruto, was it?" He asked after an awkward silence.

"Hm?"

"You have something to ask, don't you?"

I straightened, looking back to Anko, but slouched when I realized she wouldn't leave willingly. "I wanted to ask about your group. Who are each of the people that Sasuke seems to pal around with these days?"

"Well, I guess I'm a good start. My name is Jugo, nicknamed Bipolar Jugo for my outbursts with the curse mark transformations. The curse mark originated with me, making me a valuable asset to Orochimaru and a powerful ally for Sasuke. He keeps me under control, so I do what I can to repay him."

I nod vigorously. "COOL! You can transform into whatever anytime?"

Jugo seemed confused. "Uh, yes? Why is that a good thing?"

I laughed. "Cause it is. You think just cause I have a tailed beast inside me, I think that it's a bad thing?"

He didn't have an answer for that. He just seemed blank. "Well, next is Suigetsu Hozuki. He succeeded Zabuza's position in the seven swordsmen. His Hozuki clan traits make him heavily resistant to physical damage. His arrogant attitude leads him to try to prove his sword skill, so he eagerly fights with Sasuke as long as Sasuke promises to repay the favors by helping Suigetsu to find the other six swords."

I nodded at that. "Doesn't seem too bad. Zabuza was a great guy. If he took Zabuza's place, he can't be terrible."

Again, he looked at me weird. "Aaaaaand then there's Karin Uzumaki."

That clicked. "Wait? That's my last name."

"So you're clan members. Some of the last. According to some of Orochimaru's data, only three Uzumaki still live. You, her, and someone else. She can sense any chakra signature and the details of the signature to tell who it is. She can also heal you if you bite on her skin. This sends her massive chakra stores into your body for a recharge."

I marveled at that. "THAT'S SO COOL!"

". . . She's also more than a little obsessive over Sasuke."

My face hit the floor. "Not my own family. . ." I sulked. "I thought we had enough of that in the Academy days!"

That earned a smile from Jugo. "Then there's Shinzo Kisaragi."

"Yeah, I know him. Anything new with him?"

"He has an altered Curse Mark. Something about it is different from the ones made from my DNA. It has a mind of its own, and centers on anger and malice."

"Sounds like foxy." I say dryly.

Jugo stares at me a moment. "Wait. . . Naruto, can you show me some of the nine tails' chakra?"

Anko, uncharacteristically quiet, finally spoke. "If you do anything to the seal, I'll kill you here and now, Jugo." She held no ill will to him, but she didn't express anything that said she'd regret running him through.

I summoned a very small portion of the demon chakra. "Like this?"

He looked at it, as if having an epiphany. "We need to find Shinzo."

. . .

"Swords of the Seven Deathly Hallows." I speak as the ten ANBU close in. The Kage office was not too big, barely enough size for us to have a close quarters fight. I parry away the attacks of all ten opponents, sliding myself in between them all. All ten close in from all sides to impale me. My smirk never left my face as I let each of them run me through. "GAHH!" I wretch as ten blades impale my chest. They each seem surprised, seeing that my six arms with swords were held up above them on purpose. The smile on my face widens. "Got you." I bring all six swords down, each stabbing into a different Anbu's shoulder as blood gushes from them. They each stumble back, bleeding out and pulling their swords out. The remaining four, one directly in from of me, pull out attempting to get distance.

Although. . . the two blood armor arms on my left grab the man's weapon as it left my body. I pulled him back into a three are punch from my right side. This causes him to spit up blood. That'll be enough. First, though.

I stumble to a kneeling position as the blood already out is absorbed into the armor, healing the stab wounds in my body instantly, though not entirely. "Seals in place." The seals on each of the sword hilts transfers to the ANBU, who try to remove them. I check the seventh man, seeing the seal that was on me having placed over to him. I smirk while the last three try to charge me again. I pull out another scroll from my armored red vest. "Elemental scroll: FIRE!" The scroll releases the raw form of the element fire. This blows up the entire room, making a hole in the roof of the Kage building.

The debris clears as I jump into the air. The three remaining targets still more than capable of fighting as they had shielded Sinvari from the blast. "Heh. Fighting nothing but S-Class criminals lately is making you ANBU look like pussies." I activate the seals on the seven downed ninja. The seals activate, placing a heptagon shaped seal around the ground. The swords' technique fully activates as the blood in each one is sucked out of their bodies and into the swords. The blood from the seventh victim flew into the air to me, absorbing into the blood god armor, finishing healing me. "Seven down. Only three? I can go then." I make a quick sign, causing the six swords to poof away while I ditch the used fire scroll. "Seal!" The armor disappears off my body as I return to normal, landing on the wall of the village. I hunch over, breathing heavily. Not the smartest of moves I just pulled, but it worked.

I use the added power of the Curse Mark to launch into the forests, the three remaining ANBU giving chase. I assume that the village was in chaos, too preoccupied with the event to have anyone else come after me. I check my remaining scrolls. I can use the swords and armor anytime, but that can't work a second time. The Armor of the Blood God Asura adds significant defense, strength, speed, and regenerative properties. The downside? It constantly runs off a supply of blood to add to your physical abilities and to heal with. If you can't get a source of blood, it starts to take YOUR blood instead. It can only be used safely when in a battle against multiple opponents, giving more opportunities to obtain blood.

As for the Swords of the Seven Deathly Hallows? That has six unique curved swords, meant to maim, not kill. When using the technique, the user is marked as the seventh 'sword'. From their, each 'sword' must obtain some source of blood. Different sources. Once seven sources have been tagged or cut by each sword, the seals activate, extracting the blood from the sources. It's an instant kill. Problem? There must be at least seven enemies. If the user fails to mark seven opponents, a penance of blood is taken from the user to make up for the failure to get another source of blood. I could survive missing one target. Two would knock me out, so that would only be advisable with a glass of orange juice. Any more, and the user will die of blood loss just like the victims.

So yes, what I just did was straight retarded. I could have killed myself, but it worked. Now, I have a Water scroll, Earth scroll, Wind scroll, and Lightning scroll. Four scrolls to work with against three enemies. I smirked. I already had the plan.

I halt as the three enemies land, each taking their battle stances. I remove one scroll. "EARTH!" The voice of the curse mark sounded in my mind.

_Entrap the prey._

Earth and rock raises around the clearing, closing the three off from escaping. They charge at me. "WATER!"

_Let them fall for the bait._

The streams of water blast out, filling the enclosed area and engulfing all four of us. I use the next scroll. "WIND!"

_Secure your own being, in case the trap fails. _

The air blasts out, creating a large bubble in the miniature lake that just formed. This separates me from the water as I use the final one. "LIGHTNING!"

_Spring the trap. Kill the prey. _

The lighning blasts into the water, the sediments from the ground causing it to conduct the electricity, shocking each of the enemies into unconsciousness, if not death. The lightning blast breaks the earth barrier as the water disperses. I land on the ground with the three ANBU in front of me. I summon a sword from my sash and stab each one to kill them.

"Time to retreat." I heard the voice chuckle in the back of my mind, obviously pleased with my action.

. . .

We're finally here. "This is it." I say calmly. Mom, Kenjuro, Neji, Hinata, Sakura, and Kazuya.

I walk up to the small shack, already seeing what was on the inside. "Knock knock." I open the door, seeing Shisui sitting in a chair, and someone else on the bed. "Sasuke. I figured as much." I said dryly.


End file.
